


Home is Where the Heart Is

by miss_tatiana



Category: X-Men Evolution
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, M/M, au where the brotherhood turns good, cliche I know, everyone is happy!! eventually, fred turns out to be the best matchmaker ever, kitty and lance are stupidly cute, this is such a slow burn fic im sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-04 01:24:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 25,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10979457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_tatiana/pseuds/miss_tatiana
Summary: It was a Tuesday. They all had school tomorrow, and two of them had exams. They should have all been asleep in bed, or studying. Instead, they were on a bus into town, huddled up to fight the Spring chill. The bus was almost entirely empty, after all, who would take a ride after ten o'clock anyways?-The Brotherhood has to get out of Mystique's house, and where do they have to go other than the institute? Drama incurs.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> this is going to be a sort of long, wild ride with sort of short chapters. enjoy the kids trying to figure themselves out!!

It was a Tuesday. They all had school tomorrow, and two of them had exams. They should have all been asleep in bed, or studying. Instead, they were on a bus into town, huddled up to fight the Spring chill. The bus was almost entirely empty, after all, who would take a ride after ten o'clock anyways?

Fred had one arm over Pietro’s shoulders and the other over Wanda’s, both the twins leaning into him after having fallen asleep. Lance was gritting his teeth, grinding his jaw back and forth and staring at the opposite side of the bus, and Todd was sitting with his legs tucked up, flinching every time they drove past another vehicle. 

“Where are we goin’? We got nowhere to go,” Todd kept mumbling, glancing nervously over at Fred and Lance, the only other two awake, and then back out the window. 

“We’ll figure something out,” Fred finally replied, hoping that would keep Todd quiet. He didn’t want Pietro and Wanda to wake up. 

“How? We don’t have money,” Todd argued, starting to chewing his nails. “I’m not goin’ back on the streets, man.” 

Usually, no one brought up the times when Todd had been homeless, since he himself normally skated around them very intentionally, wanting to avoid them as much as he could. So this, this was a sign that things were really bad. 

Fred gave Lance an ‘is there anything we can do?’ look, because it killed him to see one of his family members as distressed as Todd was now. 

“Fuck it,” Lance muttered, yanking his eyes away from the seat opposite his and reaching into his vest pocket. “I’m calling Kitty.” 

“What? What will that do?” asked Fred, confusion clouding his mind. This wasn’t the best time to talk to your girlfriend, Lance. If they were even dating. 

Lance lifted the phone to his ear, very aware of Todd’s and Fred’s eyes on him. “Hey, Kitty?” A pause. “Yeah, I know it’s late… I don’t care about the test grade, I don’t even give a shit about that class…” He sighed. “No, I’m sorry, I know you do. Listen, Kit. Me and the boys need a place to stay, okay?”

Todd mouthed ‘what?’, raising his eyebrows at Fred, who shrugged. 

“We have no other options, just- no, I’ll explain when we get there,” Lance was saying. “Yeah, I will. See you.” He put the phone down in his lap. “We’re going to the institute.” 

“No we’re not! Those guys’ll tear us apart! Lance, I’m tellin’ you- this won’t end well,” Todd blabbered. 

“We’re going to die out here on our own, and Kitty’s expecting us,” Lance said firmly. “It’s final, we’re going. There’s a stop close to it in about ten minutes, we’re gonna get off and then we’re gonna walk. Fred, get the twins up.”

“I could carry them,” Fred suggested. Pietro and Wanda looked so peaceful, and he didn’t think that any of the other brotherhood kids got enough sleep. 

“No, they’re going to want to be awake for this,” replied Lance. 

Fred shook the twins as gently as he could. They both started to grumble, slowly opening their eyes, Wanda first, then her brother. “We’re going to the institute,” he whispered.

Wanda’s eyes started to glow. “What? Why?”

“Wanda, Wanda, Wanda, chill,” Pietro yawned. “But why are we going there?”

“We have nowhere else to go,” Lance repeated. 

Wanda clenched her hands into fists. “No, there must be-”

“There’s not,” Lance interrupted. He sighed. He was as tired as they all were. “There’s nowhere else. We just need to go, and hopefully only stay for one night or until we get on our feet. Kitty said that no one would give us any trouble for tonight. As long as we stay there, we aren’t enemies.”

“Did you tell her what happened?” asked Wanda, looking worried. 

Pietro added, “Yeah, how much did you tell her?”

“Nothing, just that we needed a place to stay,” Lance spat. “Come on, this is our stop.” 

The ragtag group stumbled down the bus steps and out into the night. The sounds of the road - and the rest of the city - filled their ears as they struggled to stay awake. They made their way down the street until they reached the big, ornate metal gates that guarded the way up to the institute. They stared at them, wondering what to do. There was no clearly visible doorbell, nor could they see any other method of letting Kitty and the others know they were at the gate.

“I guess we wait until someone comes down,” Todd said, leaning against the gate and remembering when he would just hop over it arrogantly, without a care. Now, he needed a place to stay. He couldn’t violate their property like that. 

Lance sat down as well, watching the remaining three follow suit. He ran over when this whole mess started in his head. 

_ It was a normal day. Sort of quiet, really, which was never a good sign. Quiet now meant all the more noise later. The door banged open, and Lance didn’t bother going over to check. It was probably just Pietro, coming back from trying to steal something from the supermarket a few blocks away. They’d all been starving, having no money themselves and still holding out on Mystique coming back. She never bought food though, even during the rare stints where she stayed, so he wasn’t sure what he was holding on to.  _

_ “Hello!”  _

_ Lance heard Fred’s responsible voice coming from near the door. He sounded surprised, and scared. That was new, so Lance pulled himself up off the couch and meandered over to the doorway. His jaw dropped.  _

_ In the doorway, in full leather regalia, stood Mystique. She sniffed, and took a glance around the house, an expression of both disgust and boredom on her features. “I got wind that Toad was stirring up some trouble downtown. Is that true?” _

_ Fred took a breath to answer her with, but Lance cut in.  _

_ “So what if it is? That’s what you train us to do, right? What does it matter?” he demanded. He was angry with her. He hadn’t had the best experience with parents, but at least he knew that she wasn’t taking care of them like she should be, and she certainly wasn’t providing them - or even trying to provide them - with the things they needed for basic survival.  _

_ “I did train you, but not to cause trouble left and right, without rhyme or reason,” Mystique answered, talking calmly, like she was completely above them. “I trained you to do what I want, when I want.”  _

_ “So we do what you tell us,” Lance continued, even though his common sense and Fred’s worried, frantic expression were telling him to stop. “What to you do for us?” _

_ Mystique narrowed her eyes. “I provide for you. I give you a home.”  _

_ “This isn’t a home, it’s just a house,” spat Lance. “And it’s barely that, look at it. It’s falling apart. We’re dying here.” _

_ “You dare express that greedy, ungrateful shit again and you won’t have a house,” Mystique whispered, grabbing the front of Lance’s shirt and pushing him back.  _

_ “I’m out then,” Lance said under his breath, starting towards the door.  _

_ Mystique, as quick as lightning and without even transforming, lifted up the couch. None of the brotherhood really knew the extent of her powers, and her strength extended beyond what they’d expected. She set it down in front of the door, glaring straight at Lance. “Magneto needs you.” _

_ “But, you know, not enough to give us real shelter or food,” Lance said, and he felt like he was watching from outside his body, feeling his lips move and hearing the words come out, but not feeling responsible for them. He knew he was making a grave mistake.  _

_ “Where is this coming from?” asked Mystique.  _

_ Before Lance could answer, he felt Fred grab him and take him upstairs as fast as he could go.  _

_ “We have to leave,” Fred whispered. “You know? I just realized how bad this was here. Let’s just go, alright? We can take care of ourselves better than she can take care of us.”  _

_ “No need to convince me,” agreed Lance, straightening his vest. “I’m with you.”  _

_ “With you what?” Pietro had appeared next to them in the corridor, as he often did without warning, the smirk on his face fading when he saw how serious they looked. “And  who were you guys talking to out there, I thought I heard-” _

_ “We’re leaving,” said Lance flatly. “Get Wanda and Todd. We’re getting out of here.” _

_ Pietro didn’t argue. They’d had to get Wanda to float them down to the ground out of a second floor window so Mystique didn’t see them, and then they’d just ran until they couldn’t, stumbling to where they thought might be a bus stop and pooling together the odd cash they had in their pockets for tickets.  _

Lance watched the institute through the bars of the gate. Most of the lights were, off but not all of them. He wondered how long they took to get the door around here. Suddenly, there was something in his head. A voice.  _ Hello, and welcome to the institute. Why didn’t you just try the gates? They're not often locked. Don’t worry, I disabled the security in the yard. _

The others had heard it too, and Wanda pulled the gate. It came open and she shrugged. 

“Why did Grey say that?” asked Pietro, tapping his head. “Why not the old professor?”

Todd shrugged as he hopped along. “I was wonderin’ the same thing.” 

They reached the door to the institute. It felt strange. They were completely out of their elements, in the wrong place, soon to be surrounded by people who were nothing like them - who probably hated them. 

The door opened, Kitty’s hand on the knob and Jean standing by her side. “Hi,” Kitty whispered, and the smile on her face plus her tone of voice made her seem almost giddy. 

“Hi,” Lance returned. 

“Come in!” Kitty quickly stepped out of the way. “Look, the Professor doesn’t know you’re here. I’m planning on telling him eventually…” She seemed guilty. “But not yet. So we’re gonna have to hide you. Sort of.”

Wanda nudged Pietro, and they started to smile.

“Exiting!” Todd exclaimed, trying to keep his voice down. 

“You all need showers,” Jean said. “We have three bathrooms, but one is right next to the Professor’s bedroom so that brings us down to two. Take turns, alright? I’ll throw your clothes into the wash and have those ready for the morning. Until then, you can borrow pajamas. I’ll try to get some that’d fit, we don’t have that big a range of sizes.”

“Are you guys hungry?” asked Kitty, as she started to lead them up to the bathrooms on the second floor. 

They all nodded. They were starving. 

“I’d cook something, but…” Kitty sighed. 

“She’d probably poison you by mistake,” Jean chuckled. 

It was so strange that they were being nice. And even stranger, they were easy to talk to. Lance found himself wanting to make them happy, wanting to make friends with them. 

“Evan can cook. He can cook really well,” Kitty said, looking up at Jean. “I’m gonna go wake him up, alright? He wouldn’t tell on us.”

Pietro sneered. He hadn’t had to deal with Evan in a long time, and a part of him was even looking forwards to it. 

Jean nodded, and Kitty ran off down the hallway. Jean brought them to two doors, one right next to the other. “So, who’s going first? Todd, out of necessity, but you can figure out the rest. I’ll try and find some clothes for you.” She headed off in the opposite way Kitty had gone. 

Wanda had gone in first, with Todd in the other bathroom. Then Fred and Pietro. Lance went last. He’d been waiting for Kitty to come back, but she hadn’t made an appearance, nor had Jean. The baths were really nice, big and smooth ceramic, with several soaps and all sorts of hair things lined up on racks hanging on the wall. When Lance came back out, feeling the cleanest he had in years, Jean and Kitty were there again. 

Jean was holding a pile of garments. “I just took pajamas from pretty much everyone. Todd, you’d probably fit into Kitty’s-” She handed him some clothes. “Pietro, Wanda, you guys looked about Evan’s size-” She used her powers to give two sets of clothes to the twins. “Lance, I got some of Scott’s for you. And Fred, here.” She gave the last things to him. “These were too big for any of us, but the Professor kept them around just in case. I think they’ll fit fine.”

Pietro changed too fast for anyone to see, looking down at himself. They did fit, perfectly, and they smelled like Evan. He shuddered.

The others just took turns in the bathrooms. 

“These are soft!” Todd piped up. He looked incredibly different, almost like a whole other person. His hair was fluffy, and his skin seemed somehow less grey. 

“Evan’s making you guys some late dinner,” Kitty said, once they’d all changed. “Come on.”

They went back down the stairs and into the kitchen. An amazing smell hit them the moment they entered, and their hunger doubled. Evan was stirring something in a pan and periodically checking a pot on the back burner of the stove. 

“Hey,” Evan said, looking them over. “You guys cleaned up pretty nice!” He looked impressed, and he didn’t bring up that they’d taken his clothes. “We just had some potatoes lying around so I whipped up a curry. That good for you?”

They all nodded quickly. 

“Alright.” Evan nodded, pulling out plates. He took some steaming white rice from the back pot and spooned some onto each, then ladled a thick, creamy, orange-ish sauce over the tops, filled with cubed potato. “Forks are in that drawer.” He pointed. 

Once the Brotherhood was seated and digging into what was arguably the most delicious meal of their lives, Evan went over to Kitty and Jean. 

“How are we gonna float this?” he asked, looking from one of the girls to the other. He tapped the side of his head as he added, “The Professor’s going to find out. What can we tell him?”

“The truth,” Kitty answered firmly. “I’m sure if he heard from them how hard it was to live over there, and they need another space, he’d let them stay for sure.”

“I’m putting up a psychic shield,” Jean put in. “He won’t feel anything or know anything until I drop it… I think.” She sighed. She wasn’t completely confident in her powers yet, even though she worked hard at controlling them every day. “I’m trying.”

Evan shook his head. “This still feels wrong. Auntie O wouldn’t like me doing this.”

“Suck it up. We’re doing the right thing, we’re helping people,” Kitty said. “That’s what X Men do.” Her gaze drifted over to the Brotherhood, and she wondered how in the world she was going to be able to make this work. 


	2. First Light - Lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance's first night - and morning - in the Institute brings surprises, both good and bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for sticking with this!

Wanda and Pietro had gone to sleep in Jean’s room, and Todd and Fred went with Evan. Which left him with Kitty. Lance sighed. He didn’t have much against her - he even tried to avoid hitting her in fights - but this felt uncomfortable on a lot of levels. 

“I have a sleeping bag in there, but listen. Rogue is going to be asleep, so don’t make a sound. I’ll just explain everything to her in the morning. For now, let’s just avoid trouble and stay quiet,” Kitty instructed. 

“Why do you get a roommate? Jean and Evan were alone,” Lance pointed out, his posture getting somehow worse. It didn’t really matter, but he had sort of wanted to talk to Kitty alone. Just explain everything. 

“I don’t mind Rogue. She’s great once you get used to her, I promise,” said Kitty, coming to a halt in front of the door and taking Lance’s hand, ready to phase them through. 

Lance held onto her tight, and didn’t move, keeping them from getting into the room. “Kitty, wait. I feel like this has happened really quickly and I think we should talk about it, okay?”

“Since when did you want to talk to me? You avoid me at school unless nobody else is around, you never call me back, you-” Kitty sighed, pulling her hand away from his and putting it to her forehead. 

“No, I know, and I’m sorry, but Kitty, school is dangerous. We’re the only mutants there, we need to be careful,” said Lance. It sounded pathetic even to him. So maybe he was a little afraid of talking to Kitty, so what? 

“No one knows we’re mutants, Lance,” Kitty replied, squinting at him. “Not that you really try to hide it.”

Lance was looking at the floor. “Fine. Never mind. Let’s go to sleep.”

“Lance…” Kitty was watching him carefully, like she was trying to figure out what he was thinking. Luckily, that wasn’t her mutation. “Just tell me why you left your house, okay?”

“It wasn’t ours, and we were dying there!” Lance quickly looked up and down the hallway, to make sure nobody would wake up. He’d been a little louder than he’d meant to be. He hung his head again. He expected to be shushed, ushered into the room, and put to bed. He didn’t expect Kitty’s arms around him. 

Kitty rested her chin up on his shoulder. “You’re going to be safe here, alright?”

Lance found that he couldn’t speak, and nodded instead, sure she could feel it. He didn’t really know what to do. He’d never been in this situation before. It hit him, just then, how lucky it was that he was standing there, in that hallway, with someone who was willing to assure him. To  _ hold _ him. It was a miracle, and he didn’t want it to fade. If he had a choice, he wouldn’t go to another day of school. He wouldn’t have to even find another place to live, because he’d freeze time right now, and never spend another moment without Kitty. The moment he processed the thought, he realized how sappy he sounded. Pietro and Todd would mock the shit out of him if they ever found out. 

Kitty stepped away. “Let’s head to bed now, okay? I know you have a test tomorrow, you’ll want a few hours of sleep.” 

He let her phase them both through the door, and tried to see the layout of the room. It would be a bad move to walk right into Rogue’s bedpost and wake her up. It was too dark to make out anything clearly, but Kitty, who’d left his side for somewhere else in the room, seemed to know her way around perfectly. 

Kitty went straight to the closet and pulled out some extra blankets. She laid them down on the floor next to her own bed, trying to arrange them like a sleeping bag. Then she took two of the pillows from her bed - she had quite a few piled against the headboard for when she wanted to relax and read or write emails to her parents - and set them down at the top of where Lance would sleep. 

Lance felt Kitty tap his arm, and he followed her to the blankets. “Thank you for-”

“Shhh.” Kitty put a finger to her lips - not that he’d see it - reminding him that they weren’t alone in the room. She climbed into her bed, pulling her blankets up over her shoulders. 

Lance let out a sigh of contentment as he got between the two layers of comforters she’d laid down for him. Somehow, just laying down on a floor felt so much better than his mattress back at the Brotherhood house. He closed his eyes, ready to fall asleep. Now that he was resting, he realized how worn out he was, and how tired he’d been the whole night. He wondered what time it was. It didn’t really matter now that he was in bed, he decided. Just as he was about to drift off, he felt his phone buzz in his vest pocket. He pulled it out and flipped it open. 

There was a text on the screen, reading,  _ I’m glad you’re staying. _

Lance looked up at Kitty’s bed, saw the dim light of her cell phone as it waited for a response. He smiled slightly as he typed one out. 

_ Me too. _

* * *

 

Lance could never sleep when it was light out - and barely when it was dark - so when the first rays of morning sunlight began to stream through the curtains that covered the room’s only window, which was in actuality a set of glass doors leading to a small balcony, he started to wake up. The room came into focus, and he almost expected himself not to know where he was, like in movies. It wasn’t like that, and he knew exactly where he was, and he felt better than ever, despite spending the night on the floor, and despite only sleeping a few hours.  He sat up and stretched, looking around the room. 

It was beautiful, more opulent than anything he’d ever seen. The rug was patterned with intricate designs, and it was softer than the pillow he’d slept on back at the Brotherhood house. The curtains were delicate, half transparent and white, fluttering slightly in the breeze that was coming through the glass doors. 

Lance stood, going over and pushing the doors further open. He stepped out onto the balcony and looked over the Institute grounds. There was a fountain, the water in the pool around it catching the morning sunlight and sending it back out into the world. Everything was pretty here, Lance thought, gripping the balcony railing. 

“What are you doing in here?” The voice sounded angry, nervous, but most of all confused. 

Lance whipped around, and came face to face with Rogue. The first thing he noticed was that she had no gloves on. He tried to move back, but the railing pressed into his hips. “Look, just wait till Kitty wakes up, she can explain everything-”

“What?” Rogue gasped, a look of disgust settling on her face. “Ew! Y’all were doing- you came into my room and did that while I slept?”

“N-no! No! Nothing even happened, you’re on a completely wrong track,” Lance said quickly, and if he wasn’t so scared of losing his powers and memories to her, he’d think it was almost funny how off she was. 

Rogue shuddered. “Sure I am. Get out, before you level the building or something.”

“I can’t,” Lance said bluntly. 

“What do you mean you can’t?” Rogue’s hand was dangerously close to Lance’s arm. “You’re- you’re a bad guy, you need to explain things pretty quickly before I-”

“Rogue!” Kitty’s shriek came from back in the room. “Don’t! What time is it? How long have you two been up?”

Lance looked down at his watch. It wasn’t anything good, no metal at all. It was made of rubber, probably designed for kids way younger than him, but it was all he could afford. “It’s six forty.”

“Okay, we have some time before school,” Kitty sighed, joining them on the balcony. “Rogue, just take a few steps back.” She got in between them. “It’s not just Lance who’s here,” she said slowly. “The whole Brotherhood is staying, just until they can get back on their feet.”

“Who let them do this? Does the Professor know?” Rogue didn’t sound convinced yet. 

Kitty shook her head, looking down. “Listen, I know this sounds really sketchy, but I’m going to tell him this morning. Everything will be settled, and- Rogue, remember when that was you? You were just like them, and we took you in and now you’re one of us. Please, understand.”

Rogue shifted her weight back onto her other foot. “Are you saying they’re gonna stay?”

“No, I- I-” Kitty looked over her shoulder at Lance. “Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter, okay? Let’s just get ready for school, I have a test.”

Rogue gave Lance a once over, then went back inside. “Fine. But if this goes wrong, do not drag me into it. 

“Thanks, Kitty. I could’ve-”

“-handled it yourself,” Kitty finished, smiling. “I know. Let’s get dressed, head down to breakfast, and tell everyone what’s happening.”

Lance watched her phase through the curtains, finding a dopey smile on his face again, just like last night. 


	3. Memories - Wanda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wanda relives some old memories and finds herself placing some new blame.

Trying to get to sleep in a room with not only Pietro but also Jean Grey was more than difficult. Wanda felt lost, and more than that, she felt unsafe. She understood why they had to leave Mystique’s house, and she agreed with them when they escaped, but coming here of all places was a bit beyond her. She tried to stay awake as long as she could, shivering when Pietro pulled all the blankets off her. Jean had, of course, let them take her bed for the night, pulling a sleeping bag out of the closet for herself. She was too nice. Wanda couldn’t shake the thought that Jean would see into her mind while she slept, but she couldn’t hold off for any longer. She finally closed her eyes, against her will, and fell under the spell of exhaustion. 

When Wanda woke up, she was barely on the bed. Pietro must have pushed her over. She sat up and sent her twin sailing onto the floor with a flick of her powers. She surveyed the room. It was nice. Better than the Brotherhood house, and  _ way _ better than the place her father had locked her up in. The first thing she realized, though, was that Jean was gone. 

She jumped out of bed, ignoring Pietro’s grumbling from the floor. Jean must have left, to tell the Professor about them. She was about to leave the room, leave the  _ house _ , when Jean appeared from a door next to the bed. Wanda took a few steps back. 

“Sorry, did I scare you?” Jean sounded so nice. She could at least help Wanda out, and make it easy to hate her. 

Wanda shook her head. “No. Where were you?”

“Just in the bathroom.” Jean smiled, pointing back to the door. “If you need a brush, you can borrow mine. I pulled some toothbrushes out of the closet last night, so help yourself. Mine is blue, just don’t use that one.” She laughed. 

Pietro poked his head up over the bed from the other side of the room. “I thought you said there were only those two bathrooms! The ones we used last night.”

“Scott and I have our own too, they were just out of the way.” Jean shrugged. “I’m going to head down for breakfast, join us whenever you’re ready.”

“What about your Professor?” asked Wanda, trying to sound as angry as she always did. It was hard to be in a bad mood around Jean Grey, as she was quickly finding out. 

Jean took a few steps towards her. “He’s not like Mystique, Wanda. He’ll understand, and he’ll help you guys figure things out.”

“It wasn’t Mystique I had in mind,” Wanda muttered. She looked over at Pietro, who could easily understand who she was thinking of. Their father. 

Jean seemed confused, but she shook it off. “I’ll be downstairs, throw me a thought if you need anything.” She left the room. 

“Hey. Maybe she’s right,” Pietro said, suddenly at Wanda’s side. “This place does have a totally different vibe than Dad’s old shithole.”

Wanda turned on her heel, staring him down. “I was never at Dad’s old shithole, remember?”

Pietro stepped back. “Jeez, Wanda, I- I’m sorry, I don’t know what you want from me.”

“Nothing. Let’s just get dressed.”

“No. This- this is a new place for us. We get a chance to start over, and I want to start over with you, too.” Pietro sounded uncharacteristically serious, and guilty. 

Wanda glared harder at him. “Are you saying you actually want to stay here?” She gave a faux gasp and put on a mocking tone. “What would Dad think?” Then, she let her face drop back to a deadpan. So she was being a little harsh with him. So what. He deserved it. 

“It wasn’t my fault he put you in that place, alright?” Pietro looked upset. “Don’t do this- you’re- you’re projecting him onto me.”

“Don’t tell me what I’m doing, you’re wrong,” Wanda spat. “I’m not pretending you’re him, but I know what I saw when those men took me away. You, doing nothing to stop them.”

“What could I do? Wanda, I was five years old!” 

“Dad listened to you. You could’ve said something.” Wanda was still angry, but she didn’t have the energy to yell at him any more. 

Pietro shook his head. “I was scared, okay? I was worried that if I said something, he’d throw me in there with you.”

“We’re twins. We were supposed to stick together, no matter what,” Wanda said quietly. 

“I know! I know, I just couldn’t risk that. You understand, right?” Pietro looked desperate for her to understand. 

Wanda shook her head. “Whatever. Let’s just get some breakfast.” She went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. When she looked up at herself in the mirror, she realized how out of place she looked in the tame surroundings of the Institute. In Evan’s pajamas. She really didn’t fit in here. Maybe she didn’t fit in anywhere. She sighed. For now, she’d give in, go with the system. Perhaps it would pay off and she’d start feeling better, perhaps she’d just feel worse. She picked Jean’s hairbrush off the bathroom counter and ran it through her hair, then numbly brushed her teeth. 

She found her old clothes in a pile in the bathtub. They were clean, and soft. The dumb Institute kids must have run them through the wash. She put them on, and left. 

Pietro was waiting outside the bathroom door. “Wanda, wait-”

Wanda ignored him, heading out of the room and down the stairs. She found her way to the kitchen. Kitty, Lance, Jean, Scott, Rogue, Storm, and the Professor were all gathered around a table that clearly wasn’t going to be big enough for all of them. As she entered the room, she felt all the eyes in it settle on her. 

“Wanda,” the Professor said, kindness practically oozing from her name. “I understand you’ll be staying with us.”

Wanda looked down at the rug, nodding slightly. 

“Well, I’m giving all of you a day here to get used to the change - I expect it’s quite a drastic one,” said the Professor. “Meaning you don’t have to attend school today if you’d like some time to acclimate yourself to the way of life here.” He was smiling. 

Wanda could tell that she didn’t really have to be hostile towards him, or even scared of him. This man had probably never hurt anybody in his life. She considered the proposal. He was insinuating that she’d be staying for a while, maybe even moving in for good. She knew that if Pietro had a choice, he’d stay away from school for as long as he could, and that made up her mind. “Thanks but no thanks.” She shrugged. “I want everything to be back to normal as fast as it can be, so I’ll just go to school.” She was putting on the voice she used when she had to deal with adults. 

“That’s brave of you, Wanda,” the Professor said, in a way that made her feel like they were sharing a secret. “I’m sure you could get yourself to class if you want to, but Scott also drives as many people as he can fit into his car. Since you’re new, you have a spot if you want it.” He put a hand to his temple. “I’m just calling Kurt down to breakfast, making sure he isn’t late again. All those tardies aren’t working for him.”

A moment later, Kurt appeared in a puff of smoke right behind Wanda. “Wanda? Lance? Professor, what is going on here?”

The Professor sighed. “They are-”

“We’re staying,” Lance interrupted. He had that smirk on his face, the one where he’d start a fight in about two more seconds. “Got a problem with that?”

Kurt wrinkled his nose. “Don’t you have-”

“Enough, children.” It was a voice that hadn’t spoken yet, calm, cool, and steady. Storm was holding herself about a foot off the ground and glaring at both Lance and Kurt. After a moment, she touched gracefully back to the ground. “Thank you. No fighting in this building.” A gentle smile spread across her face.

Wanda instantly got the impression that she was someone you had to keep on the good side of. 

Kurt, all the fight taken out of him, had nothing to do but say, “Fine, but don’t think you’ll be catching a ride to school with me. Have fun being in a car with Scott.”

Scott looked up at Kurt. “Come on…”

“Actually, Lance and I are walking to school,” Kitty said, dissolving the tension instantly. “If we want to get there on time for the math test, we should head out now. Have a good day, everyone.” She led Lance out of the house. 

Wanda raised her eyebrows. If Kitty had gotten Lance to go to school when he had a choice to stay home - on a test day, no less - they had to be way closer than she’d thought. 

“Now, as most of you know, I’m keeping things ship shape today while Charles heads out to pick up our newest student,” Storm was saying. “I expect good behavior from all of you, or you’ll find yourselves in the middle of a twister.” The threat was frightening to think about, but the light in her eyes and the smile on her lips said there was nothing to be worried about. 

“Thank you, Ororo,” the Professor commented. His name was Charles, apparently. “I’d better head out, in fact. Logan is waiting by the car. Everybody take care, please.” He left the room. 

Wanda took a seat at the table. She was still far from comfortable, but she knew she’d fall in love with how domestic it was here no matter how hard she tried to keep hating it. She took some toast from a rack and let Jean pour her a glass of orange juice. It was so calm here. Almost too calm, but in a good way. 

She watched Scott and Jean discuss something, probably school related, in such a casual, close manner that she almost felt like she was intruding. She watched Kurt and Rogue bicker over their piles of pancakes, Rogue grinning as she tapped the inducer on his wrist and watched him blink into his human facade. She watched Ororo, which seemed to be Storm’s name, conjure a little raincloud over the potted plants on the window, appearing so at home with her powers. 

Just when she was starting to let her guard down, just temporarily, Pietro appeared in the doorway. She scowled, looking across the table at Kurt. “Hey, blue raspberry. Is that ride to school still available?”

Kurt smiled at her, but he looked a little scared. Good, that was the impression she wanted to give off. “Of course,” he said, securing the human form on his inducer. “Want to go now? I should get some studying in before my bio exam.”

Wanda nodded, sparing a glare over at Pietro, who was looking to her for something. Maybe forgiveness. She grabbed the hand Kurt offered and felt herself disappear. 


	4. Doubts - Todd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todd gets that the Institute seems like utopia, but he's never really been one for that anyways.

So, Spyke - Evan - turned out to be pretty cool. He set up a bed on the ground for Fred and let Todd take the couch. It was like he instantly knew they didn’t want to talk, or even think, about what had happened, so instead of asking them, or even letting the room lapse into awkward silence, he immediately struck up a conversation about such normal things Todd’s nerves chilled out a little. It turned out Todd and the guy both liked the Festering Boils! Before they even went to sleep, he didn’t understand what Pietro had against Evan.

They must have stayed up talking for later than Todd thought they did, because Evan’s aunt had to come in and wake them up so they wouldn’t miss school. For some reason, he’d been nervous walking over to the Institute. Once inside it, he felt safer than he had in awhile. The shower was nice - although he’d never say that out loud - and the food was even better. Afterwards, chatting with Fred and Evan came naturally. It felt like what sleepovers at friends’ houses must feel like. 

“Evan,” Storm said, standing in the doorway, a slight smile on her lips as she watched her nephew sit straight up, throwing the covers off. “You need some breakfast in you before you leave, so get on that as quickly as you can. I won’t have my nephew collecting late slips.”

Evan shot Todd a guilty glance before jumping out of bed and running out of the room past his aunt. It was clear that he was trying his hardest to make them feel included and at home. 

Todd appreciated it, even though it made him feel weird. He guessed he just wasn’t used to it. How sad was that. 

“You two,” said Evan’s aunt, turning her kind yet severe gaze to them. “Professor Xavier is giving you a choice. You can go to school if you feel you should - only if you think you’re up to it, of course - but if you would like to stay here and get used to it, you may. Mind, if you do wish to go to school, you’d better get ready fast.” She chuckled, and left the doorway. 

Todd got off the couch slowly. If he could avoid going to school, he definitely would. He looked over at Fred, who was hurriedly changing into his day clothes and smirked. “You’re really headin’ to school?  _ Really _ ?”

“My algebra grade is on the fence right now, Todd,” Fred replied, checking his hair in the mirror hanging above Evan’s bureau. “If I miss a day, I might fail the quarter.”

Todd sighed. “And you care why…?” When he looked over to the bureau, Fred had already left the room. He shook his head. At least he’d have Pietro and Lance to spend the day with. Maybe Wanda, too! As hard as he tried, he couldn’t picture her blending into the clean, soft surroundings of the Institute. She never really blended in anywhere, though, he thought, and that was one of the things he liked most about her. One of many. 

He took his time getting dressed, still looking around the room when he heard the front door slam, telling him the last of the kids who were going to school had gone. He hopped leisurely down the stairs, taking in all the details of the place he hadn’t been able to see last night. It was impressive, he had to admit, although he worried he was easy to impress. His standards were in the ground, after all. 

He made his way to the kitchen, where he’d had dinner last night, and found Storm and Pietro sitting across from each other at the long table in the middle of the room. They were in the middle of a conversation, although, knowing Pietro, it couldn’t be too serious, so he took a seat. 

“Hello, Todd,” Storm said, smiling at him. Her voice filled the whole room, it was incredible. “Breakfast is gone, but you can find quite a few things in the fridge.” She pointed. 

Todd nodded, getting up and looking into the refrigerator. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen this much food in one place, and so many options! He pulled out some bread and a jar of marmalade, thinking about how some flies would add a nice touch. There didn’t seem to be any flies in the entire building, though, that’s how fancy shmancy it was. “So, what were you guys yappin’ about?”

“Nothing, dickhead,” Pietro quipped quickly.

Storm raised her eyebrows at him, then turned to Todd, a small smile covering her disapproval. “We were discussing my nephew, Evan. I knew Pietro here had a bit of a rivalry going with him, and I wanted to make sure that it didn’t extend into this home. I prefer my students to be friends, instead of at each other’s necks, and the last thing I want to see is somebody getting hurt.” Storm set her interlocked fingers on the table. “Especially one of my relatives.”

Pietro wasn’t meeting her eyes. 

Todd took a bite of his bread, feeling uncomfortable. Eager to change the subject, he asked, “Hey, where’s Lance?”

“At school,” Pietro answered, raising his eyebrows. “Isn’t that crazy? I couldn’t believe it either, I got down after he’d already left. Apparently, Kitty-”

“I won’t have any rumors going about, boys,” Storm said firmly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should get the new rooms set up. Students usually don’t come in this… suddenly. It’s fine, of course, the more the merrier, but with all five of you and the girl that Charles is picking up, I’m not sure I’ll have time to get everything done.” She left the room quickly. 

Todd stared at the doorway she’d gone out of. Everything was so strict here, and not the way it had been at the old house. There, strict meant when Mystique got back, they had to shove the messes they had made into the closets and then go out and destroy some property. Here, it was no messes, ever, and everything was probably put away before you could even use it. It was clean, for sure, and it was a world and a half away from what he was used to. Maybe it was too soon to judge the Institute. 

He hoped so. He hoped that the slight doubts, the tiny, dark suspicions were just him judging a book by its cover, or even just feeling out of place in an element much unlike his own. He would hate to hate it here. Here, there was everything that should make him comfortable and happy, that would keep him safe, but there was a growing fear that he wouldn’t fit in. That he’d stick out so painfully there’d be no point to even stay. 

“Hello? Earth to Todd,” Pietro said, waving his hand at the speed of light in front of Todd’s eyes. 

Todd sighed, slumping down on the table. “Is Wanda here?”

Pietro grimaced. “No way, jose. She jumped ship as soon as I came downstairs. She went to school with Nightcrawler. We got into this huge fight in the bedroom, and she doesn’t want to be around me. I don’t get what her problem is! Everything I say to her, I’m being honest!”

“Oh?” Todd didn’t really know what to say. He didn’t have siblings - the closest he had was the Brotherhood - so he wasn’t sure he knew what advice to give. Plus, he’d like to agree with Pietro, but he couldn’t say a cross thing about Wanda if his life was on the line. 

“Yeah, really,” Pietro continued, words coming out at a mile a minute. “And like- it’s not like what happened to her was even my fault! She’s acting like I had a say in it, but I was tiny! I was just a kid, and Dad never listened to me any more than he listened to her! I just- I don’t get it.”

“Maybe you should give her some space.” Todd shrugged. “The last thing we want is to make her angry. We might all get turned into-” He looked down at himself. Toads, of course, was the word on his mind. “Never mind.”

“She’s so dumb,” Pietro muttered. 

“But, hey,” said Todd, eager to change the subject. “Not the worst you’re gonna have to deal with here, huh?”

“What do you mean?”

“Evan, man,” Tod explained. “You freakin’ hate the guy. Why is that, by the way?”

Pietro’s face dripped into a scowl. “We played against each other, remember? And he beat my ass every time. I should be able to win, right?” He tapped his own chest. “I used my powers and everything! But he cheated, or something, and then he was so cocky about it! He’s just a rude piece of shit, okay?”

Todd got up, intending to explore the Institute. It was huge, it’d take him all day. “I don’t know. I talked to him last night. He didn’t seem that bad.” He shrugged. “See you around. I’m headin’ out to the grounds.” He hopped out the front doors and out onto the large set of stairs. He wondered why there wasn’t a ramp, for the Professor. 

He spent a long time outside, going from the extensive fields - where he meandered through the grass trying to catch a fly or two and yes, searching for four leaf clovers - to the fountain - where he looked down at his reflection until he leaned too far forwards and the water cascading down from the top levels drenched his head. He headed over to the forest at the edge of the property.

To call it a forest was an overstatement, really. There were a few trees, but they were too spread out to be a real woods. It was more like a grove, Todd thought. He jumped up onto a branch and settled himself in there, leaning his back against the tree’s trunk and stretching his legs out along the limb. This, he might be able to get used to. As much as he loved the city, being alone in nature did - well, not wonders, but close to them - for his anxiety. 

Todd wondered how long the others could hold out in a place like this. Fred would probably fit right in. He chuckled to himself. Fred had always been pretty soft and gentle, so long as no one picked fights with him. Lance probably would get sick of it pretty damn soon, but if he’d go to school for Kitty, he might just be able to stay for her. Pietro… it all depended on if he and Evan fought a lot. If they didn’t, though, Pietro might be able to fit in. He tended to bend to fit situations, despite his tough talk. And Wanda… 

He knew Wanda would want to run away pretty quickly, or at least he’d bet on it. She seemed to be in such a different world than the Institute, he couldn’t imagine it going well for her. It made him wonder, though, how well he really knew her. He thought he had her pegged, but she always did things that surprised him and made him reconsider what he thought he knew about her. Maybe she’ll really like the Institute, he mused. Maybe she’ll find a way to fit right in, just like Rogue did. 

All he knew for sure, though, was that if Wanda was going to take off, he’d run with her. 


	5. New Kid - Fred

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for sticking with this !

School was school as always, but it felt different today. It wasn’t just that Fred got a project back with a great grade on it - which was a rare occurrence, he wasn’t ashamed to admit - he managed to pinpoint it on the fact that he’d come from a different place that morning. It seemed stupid, and inconsequential, but perhaps coming from a good house instead of a bad one really changed how he felt. At least, that’s what he thought. 

Lance and Wanda met up with him on the school grounds once the last class had gotten out, and they started to walk over to where Lance normally parked his jeep before remembering they needed to head all the way back to the Institute without a vehicle. 

“This is so weird,” Lance muttered, even though he’d seemed more cheerful than ever all day. 

“How did your walk to school with Kitty go?” asked Wanda, raising her eyebrows at him. Everyone knew about his crush on Kitty. It would be even more impossible for him to hide it if they really decided to keep living with her, although he didn’t even seem to try and keep her from finding out. 

“Shut up, Wanda,” Lance replied. “I heard you caught a ride to school with Kurt, why don’t you tell us about that?”

Wanda crossed her arms, looking away. 

Fred nudged her as gently as he could. “Even if you’re just making friends, that’s pretty cool.”

“I only went so I could avoid Pietro,” Wanda sighed. 

“What was going on with you guys?” Lance asked. “I headed out pretty quickly, but what was up?”

Wanda rolled her eyes. “He’s just being dumb. He thinks he knows everything, all the time. It’s like, he doesn’t get that he can’t talk like he’s been through the same shit as me. Dad didn’t throw him away, but he’s like, ‘Wanda, I understand!’” She shook her head. “No, he doesn’t. I can’t keep living at the Institute if he does.”

“I hate to say this, Wanda,” Lance began, “but you shouldn’t be so quick to judge the Institute. It’s a big adjustment, but I think we can all get used to it.”

“You don’t even sound like yourself!” Wanda exclaimed. 

Fred knew they weren’t really fighting. Debating over topics that impacted all of them could be expected. And whether they stayed with the X kids or left was really important. He would go either way. He liked the atmosphere in the Institute, there was more respect there, but he knew that the others would have a far harder time getting used to it than he would. He wasn’t sure if Todd would be able to make it a whole week. 

When Lance had first suggested it, last night on the bus, he’d made it seem very temporary, like they’d just be staying there until they had somewhere else to go. Now, the way he was talking made Fred think he wouldn’t mind spending the rest of his school years there. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On one hand, whatever made his friends happy would go with him too, but on the other, not all of his friends would be happy. 

He’d thought out how he figured it would go during study hall. Lance would stay with the X Men until he was an adult, then he and Kitty would go off, either to fight crime with each other or to settle down together. Pietro would probably go to live with his father after maybe a month at the Institute and become one of Magneto’s Acolytes, and those of them that stayed would end up fighting him. With Pietro gone, Wanda would probably stay. Fred had a feeling that she and the Professor would get along if she gave him a chance, and perhaps he could even help her with her PTSD. Todd would enjoy the luxury of the Institute for maybe a year, but then he’d head off on his own, either fading away into homelessness or getting sucked up into the Acolytes. Both ways he’d end up dropping out of school. 

Fred didn’t put himself into the equation. He couldn’t predict where he was going to end up. A yell from across the parking lot pulled him out of his thoughts. 

“Hey!” It was Scott Summers, standing over by his car. 

Lance tensed, hands leaping into fists. He took a sharp breath in, almost ready to use his powers out of habit. Him and Summers had never gotten along.

“Jean has track today and Kurt got himself home,” Scott shouted. He was waving. “If you guys want a ride, we’ll try and fit you in!”

Lance relaxed, turning to his friends. “As I said-  _ so _ weird.”

“Are we gonna…” Fred tilted his head towards the car, where Scott and Kitty were standing. 

“I don’t want to walk,” Wanda said, and that decided it. 

The car ride was a little bit awkward. Kitty, Lance, and Fred squeezed into the back, Lance not seeming to mind at all that Kitty was sitting half on his lap. Wanda got shotgun, and Scott drove. Scott tried to ask how their days went, and when they all responded with simply ‘good’, the conversation quickly died off. Fred felt pressured to keep the car from silence, so he asked where Rogue and Evan were. Rogue, as it turned out, liked to head home on her own. No surprise there. But what did surprise Fred was that Evan had to stay after school and do some remedial English work. He’d never suspected that any of the X Men had a hard time with school, and, for some reason, learning that made him feel a lot more comfortable.

When Scott pulled into the Insitute drive, Fred saw Todd sitting on the fountain and wondered how his day had been and how much of it he’d spent outside. They’d never really hung out anywhere but the Brotherhood house, because the surroundings there were grimy, and concrete, and depressing. 

As Fred had expected, Wanda avoided Pietro and the moment Jean got home from track, Wanda asked her to show her the lipstick she used. Fred wanted nothing more than to stay as far away from that conflict as he could. Pietro ended up chatting with Storm, who Fred was personally a little bit scared of. Lance and Kitty went off to do homework on the grounds, and anyone who knew Lance knew that he wouldn’t get a thing done. Todd was still outdoors, and no one wanted to interrupt him. 

So Fred was alone. He wandered around the Institute, not sure how much of it there really was. Eventually, he stumbled upon a library. He was immediately drawn to it - which was weird, because of his dyslexia - and once he was inside, he felt completely comfortable. He’d been on edge since they’d arrived last night, trying to keep up a good image so the X Men didn’t start to regret letting him stay, but here he felt like he could finally relax. He walked through the shelves, which were floor to ceiling, and thought about everything. It seemed wrong that so much could fit into such a short period of time. 

He took a seat on a leather couch, of which there were several throughout the room. There had to be some way he could balance everything without letting himself be a villain. If he was going to stay at the Institute, he’d have social responsibilities to keep up, and he’d have to do that without letting his Brotherhood family down. So, appear friendly enough that it’s easy to stay with the X Men, and still have time leftover to spend with the old gang. That didn’t seem too hard, but then there was school. Just because he’d gotten one good grade, there wasn’t any assurance that he’d be getting any more. He had to work so much harder than an average student to barely pass. There had to be something he could do, something he hadn’t tried yet, but he was beginning to doubt something like that even existed. 

Fred thought the afternoon away, and before he knew it, Kurt bamfed into the room. 

“It took me forever to find you!” Kurt exclaimed. “Jean wouldn’t just look with her mind. Dinner will be ready soon, so come down.”

Fred nodded. “Okay.”

“Want a ride?” offered Kurt, although it seemed like he’d rather not.

“Sure,” Fred sighed. He got up and laid a hand on Kurt’s shoulder and they were suddenly in the dining room. Everyone was there, and they were all silent, their attention directed towards the doorway. 

In it there was the Professor, and standing by his side was a girl. She was tiny, and she looked intimidated. Fred remembered Storm saying there would be a new student. 

Nobody was speaking, until Jean stepped forwards. “Hi, welcome to the Institute. I’m Jean Grey, I can show you around if you’d like, or you could stay right here. We’re about to have dinner.” She looked to the Professor, who nodded at her. 

The girl - was she fourteen? Maybe fifteen? - had her hands behind her, on a suitcase that was nearly as tall as she was. “Where can I put my things?” she asked the Professor quietly. 

“Miss Munroe-” Professor Xavier indicated Storm. “-made up a room for you. Ororo, would you like to bring her suitcase upstairs?”

“Of course,” Storm replied. 

“I can get it myself,” the girl said. 

Storm shook her head. “It’s no trouble, and you’d be late for dinner.” She tilted her head towards the kitchen. “Go on.” She took the suitcase and headed out of the room. 

Charles smiled at the small crowd that had gathered. “Everyone, this is Amara Aquilla. Amara, meet everyone.”

“Hi,” Amara said quietly. 

People waved back at her, then began to head into the kitchen to get their dinners. 

There were a few options that Storm had presumably whipped up during the school day, and a stack of plates and utensils off to the side. It seemed that they only used the dining room for dinner. The kitchen was quicker for breakfast on school mornings. 

As Fred got back to the dining room, he was that Todd had come inside and was already sitting at the table. He went over to take a seat by his friend. 

“How was your day, man?” asked Todd.

“I got and eighty four on my history presentation,” Fred answered firmly. So what if he was proud? He thought he deserved to gloat a little bit. 

“That’s great! How didja-” Todd froze as someone took the seat on the other side of Fred. 

Fred looked over and his eyes found the new girl. He was shocked. He was new, and he looked anything but approachable, especially next to people like Scott and Jean or Evan and Kitty. He didn’t know what to say, or do. 

“I’m Amara,” the girl said, smiling up at him. It was the first time she’d smiled since she arrived. 

“Fred,” Fred replied.

“Is there somewhere to hang out here that’s just… quiet?” she asked. She looked tired. 

Fred was about to say that he was new here, and that he didn’t really know, but then he remembered the library. “Yeah, for sure. Want me to show you after dinner?”

Amara smiled. “Please and thanks.”

If there was one thing, Fred realized, that could make or break his stay with the X Men, it very well might be this kid. 


	6. Disconnected - Pietro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pietro fooled himself into thinking that the x men had his best interests at heart, only to remember that they weren't on his side

So the new kid was weird. Quiet, shy. She hung right onto Fred, though, and Pietro watched them leave dinner together. He almost made a joke that Fred was too young to be a parent, but he stopped himself, remembering how Fred had taken him under his wing when his dad dropped him off at the Brotherhood house, and how grateful he’d been. 

Wanda, as he predicted, continued to avoid him after she got back from school. She wouldn’t even look at him all through dinner, and the moment she was finished eating, she asked Kurt to take her around the grounds and point out where the security booby traps were. Okay, maybe she was just being clever on that one, but it sure felt like she was trying to get away from him. It sort of hurt, because he was trying really hard to get to know her. 

Ever since she’d broken out of wherever their dad had put her, Pietro had tried to make a connection. It was hard to pick something up when you left off half your life ago, but they were twins.  _ Twins _ . In every film with twins, they were as thick as thieves, and he wanted that. Really badly. He’d keep trying, though, he decided. It wasn’t like he was just going to give up after one fight, that wasn’t like him at all. 

Pietro had spent all day thinking about Wanda and trying to get her to look at him. Maybe what he needed was some time on his own, to think things through. He sped away from the table, finding himself on the stairs outside. It was nice. The Institute had a lot of people in it. He never thought he’d find comfort in silence, but he’d never really been in a place that loud before, sans school. 

“Hey, you need some privacy?” 

Pietro turned, and his eyes met Evan’s. He squinted. “Why are you here?”

Evan shrugged. “I like to come out here sometimes when they’re getting loud inside. I love them to death… but peace and quiet, man. It’s hard to come by.” 

Pietro sneered, and began to feel very uncomfortable. 

Evan sighed. “Listen. I know we fought on the court, but we’re on the same team now. I’m sorry for beating you.”

“I’m sorry that you…” Pietro scoffed, coming up empty. He was usually the master of retorts, having scathing things ready in less than a second to return, but he was having trouble focusing on the negative things about Evan right now. The guy seemed really nice, but Pietro couldn’t let himself think that. No way was he going to let his reputation slip just because he was sleeping in a different place. “I’m sorry that you had to use your powers to win.”

Evan shook his head, and started to laugh. “Good one, sure.” He was silent for a little bit, looking up at the stars. 

Back at the Brotherhood house, in the middle of the city, there was so much light pollution that it was difficult to get a clear glimpse of the stars. Here, on the edge of the ocean, with whatever small amount of fields and trees covered the land, it was like looking up at an entirely foreign sky. 

Finally, Evan took a seat on the steps and patted the ground next to him for Pietro. “What is it like? Being Magneto’s kid?”

Pietro found himself sitting, against his better judgement. He shrugged. “Just like being anyone cool’s kid. I don’t know. Why do you need to know?” he spat.

“I don’t necessarily need to know, but I’m interested. Because, like, my Auntie O is like the… um, the anti-Magneto,” Evan said. “I sort of want to compare.”

“You go first, then,” said Pietro, almost too quick to be understandable. He raised his eyebrows. 

Evan clasped his hands together, and Pietro realized that this must be awkward and uncomfortable for him too. The only difference between them was that Evan was making an effort to change things and start again. Pietro sighed. 

“It’s just like this extra layer of pressure, you know? If I lived away from home, then I could maybe let some things slide, start to do some stuff my way, but she’s here, and I love her shit tons but…” Evan rubbed a hand through his hair. “She’s my family, so I live up to her standards on that, but she’s also my teacher, and that’s another layer that I have to perfect. I have to be enough of a hero - great training scores, great physique, great everything - to make up for how bad I do at school.”

“You do bad at school?” Pietro asked, his snobbish facade slipping away for a moment as surprise took him. “I thought all you X Men were teacher’s pets.”

“I wish.” Evan shook his head again. “Nah, I mean, most of us are. Just… not me. The classes are shit, they’re not engaging, they’re not interesting, and the teachers are teaching stuff in a way that only works with their brains.”

“Wait, you have-”

“ADD,” Evan finished, nodding. “It’s the fucking worst. They think I’m being rude or something when I can’t pay attention and I try to explain it, like, I literally cannot pay attention, and I’m trying really hard, and they just think it’s some teenage bullshit.”

Pietro looked down at the steps. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t not agree with Evan. He found himself wanting to go along, so he did. “I read you. I’m- I have ADHD. And it’s the same deal, except teachers don’t even try to talk to me, they already have me marked down as one of the bad kids.”

Evan looked up, and he seemed overjoyed. “You’re serious?”

Pietro started feeling nervous, not knowing what Evan was going to say. “Um, yeah.”

“Poetry helps, man, it really does.” Evan was talking faster now, and he was grinning. “If I can memorize a poem when I get home before I start to do worksheets, it’s like a gateway. It gets me in the zone. You got any tricks?”

Pietro shook his head. “Nope. I never tried to… do homework or anything. My dad doesn’t check up on my grades, and it’s not like Mystique cared. I guess that’s the difference between Storm and my dad. He doesn’t give a shit.”

“Hey, I’m sure-”

“No, he doesn’t. I know him.” Pietro looked away. Talking about his dad to anyone but Wanda was difficult. “But your aunt is great. She told me about you, like, all day. She told me not to start any fights with you, which I get, but then she just kept going. It was really… I don’t know. She’s proud of you.”

Evan smiled. “That’s sweet. She’d never say that to my face, but it feels really good to hear it. Thanks.”

And all of a sudden, his appreciation for Evan, his need to please and get along with Evan, his interest in what Evan had to say all vanished, and cold, hard jealousy took the place. He wanted what Evan had. He worked hard to fail at what Evan didn’t even need to attempt. Evan already had a perfect family, and all the common ground between them disappeared. Pietro scowled. “No problem.” He stood up. “Good talk.”

Evan looked up at him, worry on his face. “Did I say something wrong, man?”

“Nah, ‘cause nothing you say could ever be wrong,” Pietro quipped. 

“Pietro-”

“Don’t talk to me, pal,” spat Pietro. “Enough is enough.”

“What do you-?” Evan stood up. 

“You’re flaunting your perfect family right in front of me,” Pietro yelled. “It’s not fair!”

Evan looked hurt. “I’m not-”

Pietro sped back inside before he could hear the rest of it. He was tired, and he was angry. He thought he and Evan were finding a bit of common ground, but he was just being blind. How could he forget how different they were? He went back up to Jean’s room, and came face to face with the telepath. “Um… can I help you?”

“Wanda’s changing in my bathroom,” Jean said. She looked frighteningly powerful, and she was about half a foot taller than him. “Leave her alone, alright?”

“She’s my sister,” Pietro said, not in the mood to fight with another X Man. “Don’t tell me what to do about her.”

“She may be your sister, and I respect that,” Jean acknowledged, calm but very serious. “However, she came to me, not you, and asked me to tell you that.”

“Seriously?” Pietro shook his head. “Unbelievable. If there’s one thing that would really top off today, it’s that.”

Jean gritted her teeth. “Come on. I don’t want to do this any more than you do, trust me, but I want Wanda to feel respected and at home here. If she comes to you, then that’s fine, but please don’t seek her out. She needs time to adjust to life here.”

“It’s not that.” Pietro shook his head. “It’s about our dad.”

“Give her time, okay?”

“Fine. Whatever.” 

“I set up a guest room for you,” Jean said levelly. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Pietro said, but he turned to go. 

The bathroom door opened, and he turned to see Wanda framed in the doorway. 

She looked away from him, over to Jean, and didn’t say a word.

“Sleep well, Wanda,” Pietro said, then he raced away. He looked through several rooms in the Institute - the place was enormous - before finding the spare Jean had fixed up for him. It looked empty. He closed the door, took off his shoes, and laid down, putting his head into one of the pillows on the bed and just wanting it to be morning. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> umm pietro and evan are angsty neurodivergent teens


	7. Deep Cuts - Lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is faced with a revenge mission gone wrong, and discovers things he never should have seen.

A week had passed since the Brotherhood had first shown up at the gate of the Institute. Lance thought he might have lost interest in the docile place, but he definitely hadn’t, and the girl sitting on the roof next to him was definitely a large part of why. 

“You have to get up here really early or you’ll miss it,” Kitty was saying. “Sorry I woke you up.”

“Nah, don’t be,” Lance replied, quickly enough to be awkward. “The air is nice and clean, and…” He couldn’t think of anything else to say, but it really was nice. Only Kitty would think to be up early enough to catch the sunrise from the freaking roof of the Institute. They had been sitting side by side up on the tile, waiting for the first rays of sunlight to break the horizon line. He felt good. He felt peaceful. He didn’t feel the pressure to succeed or the pressure to destroy things he felt at the Brotherhood house. In all honesty, he could get used to this. 

Kitty looked over at him, her gaze even softer than normal because of the pink sky spilling over onto her face. “Are you… okay with being here? I know it’s, like, a huge change, and people might be angry at you. Mystique… you never ever really told me why you had to leave.”

Lance rubbed a hand under his nose and sniffed. “She was going to throw a couch at me because we were starving and I asked for food.” That was the first time since it actually happened that he’d said it outloud, and he let out a sigh and rubbed his forehead. He hadn’t even talked to the other Brotherhood guys about it. When he looked over at Kitty, he was taken aback by the expression on her face. 

Kitty was clenching her fists tight, digging her nails into her palms. Her eyes were focused on the ground far below them, and she looked absolutely furious. 

“Kitty, it’s- it’s okay-” Lance stammered, quailing next to the energy he could feel coming off of Kitty in waves.

Kitty slammed her fist down on the roof and locked eyes with Lance. “No, it’s not okay. How could someone do that?”

“She’s- she’s a villain-”

“You’re right. She really is.” Kitty shook her head, gritting her teeth. Something passed through her eyes, a new idea reaching her mind. “And we’re heroes.”

Lance looked down at himself. “I’m not really- I mean, I haven’t done anything with the X Men yet-”

“You wanna skip school today?” Kitty seemed like she’d do whatever she was planning on with or without him. 

Lance knew that whatever she was going to do - he had sort of a vague idea of it but nothing solid - would be dangerous, and he didn’t want to be stuck in a class knowing she was out there risking her life. Even though nerves had begun to creep in and take a hold of his chest, he put on his best cocky, confident, bad boy tone and said, “I’m always down to skip.”

“Alright,” Kitty said, teeth still clamped together, anger still all over her face. “Let’s get into uniforms and get out before anyone else wakes up.”

“I don’t have a uniform,” Lance protested. “Should I take Scott’s? Or-”

“You have a uniform,” Kitty assured him. She put a hand on his shoulder and phased them through the roof, through someone’s bedroom, and through the living room before finally stopping in a dimly lit, rather small room. “The Professor got his hands on ones for all of you the day after you showed up.” She glanced around the walls, which were covered in racks, upon which hung the variety of the X Men’s uniforms. She picked out her own quickly, and about a minute later, she found Lance’s and handed it to him. 

“This is… weird. Cool, but weird,” Lance said, almost to himself, as he inspected the uniform. It was in colors he liked, and it looked like it would fit him really well. He almost questioned how, but then he remembered that Professor Xavier was a psychic. 

“Get changed, quick,” Kitty ordered, dropping through the floor so they could each get into their uniforms in private.  

As Lance tried on his uniform for the first time, he thought about why Kitty was doing this. Maybe she was waiting for an excuse to get back at Mystique for something. Maybe she needed an act of heroism to show her X Men pals that she made the right choice by letting the Brotherhood stay with them. Maybe she just wanted the day off of school, who knew. He couldn’t figure her out, try as he might. Of course, it never occurred to him that she was acting out of love.

The uniform fit wonderfully. He held himself back from looking through the other ones hung around the walls, because that would be weird, and when Kitty phased back up through the floor, he didn’t let himself comment on how great she looked in hers, because that would be weirder. 

“Come on,” Kitty whispered, holding out a hand. “You have your license, right?”

“Um, no.” Lance took her hand, feeling guilty. “I can drive, though.”

Kitty shook her head. “I’ll skip school, but I’m not about to ride shotgun with someone who’s not licensed. I’m not that rebellious. Let’s take the bus.”

Lance rolled his eyes and sighed, noticing that even though they hadn’t started phasing anywhere yet, she was still holding his hand. “Fine. It’s your mission.”

Kitty nodded firmly at him, as if bouncing ideas off him was helping her solidify things in her own mind. Maybe getting an agreement was hyping her up enough to actually do what she was thinking of. “Yes. It’s my mission.” There was a hint of pride in her voice, and her hand tightened around his. She turned and led him through the wall. 

In twenty minutes, they were on a bus into town. As far as they knew, no one had seen them. 

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Kitty asked under her breath. 

“I don’t even know what we’re doing, Kitkat,” Lance replied, looking out the window and gripping the seat to avoid getting too jostled as the bus went over bumps in the road. 

Kitty didn’t even acknowledge the nickname, ploughing ahead like- well, like what she was. A girl on a mission. “I’m going to find Mystique and I’m going to-”

“-lock her in jail? Bring her home for the Professor to deal with?” Lance winced at the almost aggressive tone he’d accidentally used. He sighed. “Kitty, she’s way older than us, way more experienced than us, way more powerful than us. How will we even find her? She could be anywhere in Bayville - scrap that - she could be any _ one _ in Bayville. It’s unrealistic.” He’d assumed that this was about Mystique, but how dangerous tangling with her could end up was just hitting him as they spoke. 

Kitty snarled. “Let me finish. I’m going to find Mystique and I’m going to get rid of her.” She slid down in her seat, eyes narrowed. Her voice had been dead serious, and an aura of fury was spilling off her. 

“Where are you even going to look?” asked Lance, feeling hopelessness settle in his chest. There was no way they could beat Mystique. Their powers complemented each other, they fought well together, but they just weren’t a match for her. 

Kitty reached up and slammed the button that requested a stop.

Before she could answer his question, Lance looked back out the window and figured it out for himself. This was the bad side of town. The lights on general store signs flickered, and garbage was strewn across a side street where a dumpster had been tipped over. They were back in his neighborhood, and the week he’d spent away suddenly felt like forever. He shuddered. 

Kitty stood sharply the moment the bus pulled itself to a grinding halt, barely waiting for the doors to slide open before jumping out onto the street. 

“Kitty, I’m- I didn’t mean- I believe in you,” Lance stammered, following her into the city. “I’m not doubting you, it’s just- Mystique is strong. And smart.”

“Good thing you’re strong, and I’m smart  _ and _ strong,” Kitty snapped, but then she turned around, and there was fear in her eyes. She was acting callous because she was nervous. 

Lance rubbed her shoulder. “We can go back home if you want. We can get right back on the bus and head home for class.”

Kitty shook her head. “No. We can’t stop. She won’t get away with what she did to you. To you guys. Which way is the Brotherhood house?”

Lance pointed around a corner and followed Kitty down the alley that led to what had been his home for the biggest part of his life. Even though Kitty had given him the chance to abort when they were on the bus, and even before that, when they were still up on the roof, he was only realizing he should have taken her up on the offers then. There was no backing out now, and the closer they got to the Brotherhood house, the quicker fear reached every corner of his body. He was frightened. Of course he was. 

Kitty didn’t stop walking as they approached the house. She took a hold of Lance’s hand firmly, gave it a squeeze as if to pass some of her strength and her confidence on to him, and phased through the front door. Once inside the dark building, she turned to him. “Where would she be?” Kitty whispered, as quietly as she could. 

“Bedroom,” Lance replied, one word, terrified to move in fear of something creaking. 

Kitty nodded, and held his hand tighter as she started up the stairs. When they got to the landing, she let him lead the way. 

Lance held his breath as he walked the ever familiar hallway, the rooms where he and his friends slept passing by just as rotted doors. He poured all of his emotions through his hand, through his link with Kitty, and prayed he could keep his cool. He stopped at the end of the hallway and nodded towards the final door. It was slightly open, and there were voices coming from inside. He turned around quickly, trying to signal with his eyes that they should leave, because if Mystique wasn’t alone she was even more dangerous.

A fire in her eyes, Kitty ignored the silent warning, took two powerful, quick steps, and kicked the door in. 

There were four people in the room. Mystique was standing by her bed - a grand yet faded four poster. A figure was hovering several inches above the ground in front of the window, casting even more darkness into the room. By his side stood someone tall but slim, a visor over his eyes and his hair spiking up from his head, and in the middle of the room, seeming to be the focus of both Mystique and the floating being, was a kid about their age. 

“Magneto?” Kitty exclaimed as she hurtled into the room, her anger and momentum from outside the door carrying her too far. She hadn’t expected this. 

“Get her out of here,” Magneto growled, lifting himself about a foot higher and seeming even more imposing. “Get them both out of here!”

Mystique made a move towards Kitty, but Kitty phased through the bed and found herself a temporary safe spot on the other side of the room. The guy standing beside Magneto snapped his gloved fingers, and a flame appeared above them.

Lance wanted to move but he found himself rooted to the spot. The scene passed before his eyes like a backdrop for the kid standing still, head hung, in the center of the room. Finally, be broke his lips and voice free just enough to say, “Pietro?”

Pietro turned, looking embarrassed, and guilty, and angry, and sad. His eyes on the ground, he said, “I’m sorry, Lance.” Then he disappeared, having sped far away. 

Lance gritted his teeth. He’d have to wait and process what he’d seen later, because now he had one directive. To get between Kitty and the people that wanted to hurt her. 


	8. An Empy Room - Pietro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pietro knows he can't leave Kitty and Lance battling it out with his dad in the Brotherhood house, but he can't save them alone either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> updates will hopefully get more frequent guys im sorry

After Lance looked at him, Pietro couldn’t bear to stick around. He’d sped away as fast as he could, wishing he could explain everything to his friend, or even protect him from his dad, but knowing there was nothing he could do. He came to a stop in an alleyway several blocks from the Brotherhood house and leaned against one of the buildings, trying to stop hyperventilating. He knew it wasn’t from the running - he could run miles upon miles without getting winded - but instead the realization that he’d been found out. And more than that- his dad was probably going to kill one of his only friends. 

Tears streaked down his cheeks, and he couldn’t get himself under control. This was his fault, and whatever happened- it was on him. He should’ve stopped having little information rendezvous with his dad the second the X Men took him in. They’d been more than kind to him, and it wasn’t a lot to ask. ‘Oh, could you stop betraying us to our arch nemesis? That’d be nice’. Pietro shook his head, trying to get an even breath. 

The thing he’d been doing, where he’d meet up with his dad in private and pretend it was how actual families treated each other, hadn’t seemed real until a few minutes ago. The minute Lance walked in on them with that X Men chick he realized that he was actually in the shit, and now his friend was going to pay for it. He rubbed a hand down his face, hoping it was just a nightmare he could wake up from. He knew it wasn’t, and that he was a piece of shit in real life, but he still wished he could somehow escape it. 

He heard footsteps down the alley, and looked up. It was his dad’s dumb PA or whatever. “Pyro, leave me alone.”

“Magneto told me to find you,” Pyro said, adjusting his goggles with a hand that then went to his hip. 

“What, so he can make sure I don’t go tell on him to the Professor?” Pietro spat, glaring at the guy. He knew it was harsh to shoot the messenger, but he wasn’t in the mood to do anything else. He was frustrated with himself, and scared for Lance and Kitty, and that meant whoever tried to talk to him wasn’t going to have an easy job of it. Plus, when he was angry at his dad, he was angry at all of his dad’s lackeys by extension.

“Um, not that I know-” Pyro cleared his throat. “He wanted me to make sure you’re okay.”

Pietro let himself slide down the wall until he was sitting in the alleyway. “Cut the crap- what’s your name?”

“John.”

“Cut the crap, John.” Pietro sighed. “He wants to make sure I don’t tell anyone what was going on. I’m sick of doing whatever he says, I mean- I know I defend him to Wanda but that’s just because I want a normal family, and I like arguing with Wanda. I don’t want to just be his sidekick.”

“Hey, I’m his sidekick,” Pyro said, sounding a little bit disappointed. 

“So he shouldn’t need me to do that too.” Pietro ground his knuckles into the concrete beside him, feeling furious. “You know, I really used to look up to him. Now I’m trapped in this thing with him that’s not what family should be like, and I hate it.” He shook his head. “I wish I could be like Storm. She’s comfortable with where she is, she’s smart, and nice, and she kicks ass, and like- I feel like that’s sort of attainable but I won’t let myself get there, you know?”

“Um…” Pyro rubbed his gloved hands together, unsure of how to respond. 

Pietro looked up at him. “Hey, John, I’ve got an idea. I’m- I know I’m a little shit, but I think I can fix this.” He sped away before Pyro could try to stop him, trying to clear his head. When he ran, everything else faded away. It was the ideal time to figure out what he could possibly say to Evan in order to get help. He hadn’t spoken to him since they had that fight the night Amara arrived, and letting go of some of his pride would be… difficult, admittedly. But Lance was in danger, and it was his fault, and he was worried no one but Evan could help him. 

It was about eight thirty, judging by the traffic levels and the sun, so if he really pushed himself he might be able to snag Evan before he went to first period. He sped through the Bayville High parking lot and up the main set of stairs towards where he knew Evan’s locker was. He skidded to a halt, coming face to face with Evan. 

Pietro didn’t stop to take a breath. “Evan, I-”

“Get out of my face, man.” Evan slammed his locker shut, avoiding Pietro’s eyes. “I’m late for first period.”

Pietro gritted his teeth. “I need help! Lance-”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Evan sighed. He sounded tired.

“They-”

“Enough, just- enough.” Evan shouldered his backpack and turned, starting to walk off down the hallway as the last of the students scurried to their classes. 

“Evan, I’m sorry,” Pietro called, feeling his shoulders sink. “I was a dick to you and I’m sorry. I need your help, and if you hate me, I’m cool with that, but Lance and Kitty are in danger and no one else trusts me.”

Evan froze, not turning around. “I don’t trust you.”

“They’re with my dad,” Pietro said, just loud enough for Evan, three yards away, to hear.

Evan gritted his teeth, clenching his fists into balls. “Alright. But I’m doing this for Kitty, and when this is over, don’t talk to me.”

“Fine, whatever,” Pietro said quickly, and grabbed Evan’s shoulders. “I’m gonna have to carry you.”

Evan sighed a long sigh. He let his backpack drop to the ground in the middle of the hallway. “Wonderful.” His tone was absolutely flat.

Pietro scooped him up before they could start arguing again and took off, going the fastest he could. If Evan had just agreed to come in the first place, they could’ve saved a lot of time which he wasn’t sure they had. He was mildly irritated with Evan. It was in his nature to value his own side of an argument, even when he was wrong, so he felt that Evan was overreacting just a little bit.

He wished he had it in him to admit that he was wrong, even to himself if not to Evan, although Evan deserved it. He wished he had a lot of things he didn’t, but as he ran closer and closer to the bad side of town, he realized he didn’t have time for wishful thinking. 

He came to a stop at the door to the Brotherhood house. “Okay, let’s go.” He dropped Evan and jogged up the porch stairs. 

“That was quick,” breathed Evan, following Pietro into the house. He flexed his arms, and spikes appeared along them that could double as a weapon and as a shield. 

“They’re upstairs,” Pietro whispered. “In Mystique’s room, come on.” He didn’t address the fact that the house was deadly silent, and there should’ve been some noise if Kitty and Lance were still fighting. 

As they got to the second floor and started to head down the corridor, Evan stepped in front of Pietro. “I’m going first.” With a flick of his wrists, two more spikes appeared in his hands. 

Pietro didn’t object, too nervous that they’d walk in on a pair of dead bodies to care. 

“This is it?” Evan asked, standing opposite the door at the end of the corridor. 

“Yeah,” Pietro said quietly. 

In one powerful motion, Evan kicked the door down and careened into the room, dropping into a battle stance. “It’s empty,” he called, words half relieved and half terrified. “There’s nobody here.”

“They were- they were in here, I promise,” Pietro stammered, coming into the room. Evan was right, there was no sign of his dad, Mystique or their friends. “Evan, you need to believe me, I wouldn’t lie about this-”

“No, I believe you,” Evan said softly, scanning the room for any signs of a struggle, or clues as to where Kitty could be. “They must have taken her somewhere.” He turned to face Pietro. “Where does Magneto live?”

“I don’t know. I only meet him here,” Pietro answered, and it dawned on him as he said it how messed up that was. He’d never been to his father’s home.

“There has to be something, man,” Evan pressed, continuing to search the room, now flipping up blankets and looking into the closet. “A lair, a hideout, something. This is Magneto we’re talking about.”

Pietro racked his brains for anything his dad might have accidentally said during their talks, anything to suggest… “Nothing. I don’t think.” Wait. There was something. A long time ago, the memory was foggy. “The…. the ski lodge. Outside town. I remember him saying something about that.”

“Then that’s where we’re headed,” Evan said, a dark determination all over his face. “Come on.” He put his arm around Pietro’s shoulders and jumped, waiting for Pietro to carry him off to the next location. 

Pietro caught him just in time. “Evan, are you sure about this? I’m not scared, but he’s my dad. You’re an X Man. He might… never mind. You want to do this, this is on you.”

“Whatever. Let’s just go,” Evan said, holding onto Pietro’s shoulders tighter. 

“Evan-”

“Go!”

As Pietro sped out of the building he’d once been forced to call home and towards a ski slope he couldn’t even picture, let alone wasn’t sure where it was, all he could think was how all of this could’ve been avoided if he’d just stopped being selfish and bitter a long time ago. Lance and Kitty would be safe and sound at school if he hadn’t gone and met his dad. Wanda was right. They should cut him off. 


	9. Bloodstains - Pietro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fake dating and finding your friends half dead!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been a super while since an update! sorry! i have a holiday coming up so yall should get a lotta chapters!

It had taken them too long to reach the ski resort, Pietro was sure of that. He’d had to check a bunch of places for it, not remembering where it was exactly, and by the time they made it over the mountain and had that metal dome in view, he knew that if his dad was planning to do something to Lance, it had already started. 

He stood stock still, gazing out at the dome, and he began to shiver. It was cold on the mountain. 

“How do we get in?” asked Evan, in his arms. “Where’s the entrance?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never been here before.” Pietro put him down, feeling useless. 

“Fine. No door?” Evan stalked over and squared off in front of the dome. “I’ll make one.”

Pietro walked up behind him cautiously. Evan seemed to be very determined to get to Kitty, and he wasn’t going to let a metal wall stop him. He stood back, just in case whatever attack Evan was planning would be messy.

Evan began to grow spikes, the regular ones out his arms and shoulders, but then he felt something. It was power, it was  _ his _ power, telling him that he could go further. He did. He had long, javelin-like spikes in his hands now, and his entire back was plated. He flung the spears as hard as he could, and they lodged into the metal dome, but didn’t break it.

Pietro was shocked. Through all the battles they’d fought, never had he seen Evan like this. He wasn’t sure if it was good for the kid. “Evan-”

“I can do it,” panted Evan. “Give me another try.” He shot more spikes, forming a circle about six feet around in the metal. Then, he ran straight at the center, turning in mid jump so his plated back crashed into the dome. He was using himself as a battering ram. He backed up and did it again. And again. And the fourth time, there was a rending screech and the metal of the dome had been torn. He finally looked back at Pietro, proud.

“Are you okay?” asked Pietro as he squeezed after Evan through the gap in the dome. 

“Fine.”

“I’m serious, that was crazy.” Pietro tried to make it sound like he didn’t care. But how could he not care? Evan hadn’t noticed that the spikes he flung caught fire. 

“Man, I’m fine. Where should we look for Kitty?” Evan’s voice was steady, but he was out of breath. 

Pietro sighed, glancing around the room they were in. “Again, I’ve never been here before.”

“Hey- door, there.” Evan threw up a hand to point across the room at a couple of panels in the wall, the only thing resembling an entrance they could see. “Let’s go.”

Pietro followed him, even though this whole thing had ‘bad feeling’ written all over it. He definitely wanted to see Lance and Kitty safe again and know that he hadn’t gotten them hurt, but whatever he had pushing him was a whole other animal compared to what was pushing Evan. He wished he could see into the guy’s head. Something fell, outside the room they were in, and he froze. “Wait- did you hear that?”

Evan turned to look at him like he was making it up. “Hear w-”

Before he could finish the question, there was another, similar heavy-object-falling sound stopped him, and together, both boys looked at the door, where the noises were undoubtedly coming from.

Pietro wasn’t ready to face his father right now, and he found himself shrinking behind Evan. peering out around his shoulders. 

Something - someone? - came through the door. It definitely wasn’t Magneto, but if it wasn’t a robot then it was the largest person either of them had ever seen. 

“Who are you?” it called, in an accented, low voice. 

“Um-” Pietro blurted out, before Evan could say something dumb and get them into a fight with this guy. “I’m- I’m Pietro, Magneto’s kid. I just-” He signed sharply, trying not to let his nerves get the better of him. “I want to hang out with my dad, okay?’

“Who is this?” The great figure threw an enormous arm out to point at Evan. 

“This-!” Pietro glared at Evan, who he hadn’t come up with an excuse for. Oh, fuck it. “This is my boyfriend- um, Jordan? I was planning on letting my dad meet him?”

Evan glared right back, sneering at him, but quickly retracted his spikes, signalling that he’d go along with it for as long as he had to. 

The figure seemed to pause and consider, and then shrunk at least a foot, the metal melting into what appeared to be normal skin. So. The guy was a mutant. “Pietro,” he said, the name marred by his accent. 

What was it? Pietro thought. Russian? “Yeah. I don’t think we’ve met, are you one of my dad’s newer employees? Bodyguard?” This definitely wasn’t Sabretooth or Pyro, the only two mutants he knew his father had made deals with. 

“Either,” the guy said. “I am Colossus. Your father, Magneto, went out early this morning with John and only stopped here at the headquarters for a moment before leaving again. Why did you break the wall?”

Pietro let himself relax a bit. So he had this guy fooled. Clearly his father hadn’t told his employees about how rough his relationship with his kids was. Colossus probably thought that Magneto regularly met up with them and checked in with them. “Hello? Just because I’m Magneto’s kid doesn’t mean my mutation is about metal. You guys don’t have a door.” He watched Evan slowly and cautiously assume a less offensive position.

Colossus nodded. “That is right, there is no door. Well, you can come back and we can have a seat, wait for him to return.” He nodded again, as if confirming his words, then gestured for them to follow him back through the panels he emerged from. 

Pietro looked to Evan, trying to ask him what to do with just his eyes. He knew that his father had stopped back at his weird ski lodge HQ once, and so maybe he’d dropped Lance and Kitty off before heading back out. He remembered that if Magneto was out now, it was to look for him, and a shiver ran through him. They needed to find Kitty and Lance and get out while maintaining a cover to Colossus before Magneto got back. 

Evan just followed Pietro through the panels after Colossus, miffed and at a loss. 

“So, you are Magneto’s son.” Colossus regarded Pietro, sitting in a fold out chair that was much too small for him at a card table that came up to his thighs. He really was colossal. “I have heard that he had one, I just did not know who it was.”

“It’s me.” Pietro raised a finger. He gestured to the only other chair at the table, letting Evan sit in it before sitting in Evan’s lap and draping an arm around his shoulders. “What’s my dad like as a boss?” he asked, pretending like he knew his father enough to carry a conversation and let Evan survey the room for doors or passages. 

Colossus smiled. “There is no time off, that is certain. We are always here or out on missions for him. Sometimes he makes me a bit nervous, I do not know when he is happy or angry.”

“Huh, that sounds like him.” Pietro huffed a laugh, feeling Evan put an arm around his waist. 

“You’re nervous about working for him? Man, I’m the guy who’s dating his son, I’m terrified,” Evan said in an easy, conversational manner. 

Colossus laughed, deep and hearty, and there was a dull thud through one of the doors off the room they were in. 

Evan’s eyes narrowed, and his arm tightened around Pietro as he made a minute gesture towards the door with his head. 

Pietro stood. “I have to- um- use the bathroom-” He went to the door before Colossus could stop him. 

Colossus pointed down a hallway. “It is that way-”

Pietro tugged the door, once, twice, and then sped up in place to vibrate the lock open. The moment the door swung open, Lance fell face down onto the ground in front of him. He yelped, he couldn’t help it, he wasn’t truly expecting them to be there. 

Lance groaned, and moved slightly, but didn’t get up or make a move to turn over. His hands were clamped behind his back with a piece of what looked like a metal pipe. 

Kitty was at the back of the closet, her face slick with sweat and tears, duct tape over her mouth and her hands similarly behind her back. She looked terrified. 

“Oh my-” Pietro turned quickly to look at Colossus, just to make sure there wasn’t going to be a fight. “Did-did my dad do this?”

Evan was on his feet in an instant, face slack with shock that was quickly replaced by anger.

Kitty was sobbing through the duct tape, pressing herself as far back as she could, blood from somewhere on her face smeared around by the hand that had attached the tape. 

“You probably were not meant to see this,” Colossus said slowly, getting to his feet. 

“Are they okay?” Evan asked, breathless with anger. 

“I have to ask you to wait in the hall while I clean this up, I am sorry,” said Colossus, heading over towards the closet. 

Pietro found himself stuck, not able to tear his eyes away from the amount of blood on both of their bodies. He heard what was going on, knew he had to do something to stop it, and couldn’t. 

“Don’t move,” shouted Evan, his voice raw and scared, and before he could think he shot a spear into Colossus’ shoulder. “Pietro, we gotta go. Now!” He ran over and gave Pietro a shake as a thunderous scream filled the air, stemming from Colossus, who was kneeling. 

“Oh my god,” Pietro breathed, looking over to Colossus and the blood staining his uniform and then back to Lance, who Evan was lifting over his shoulder. 

“Pietro, fucking now. Get her, we need to get out of here.” Evan’s voice said plainly that he was at his limits. 

Pietro went to Kitty, scooped her up in his arms. She still looked scared of him, and he felt sick. Then he turned and followed Evan out of the dome, as quickly as he could without speeding.


	10. Forgiveness - Wanda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The event with Magneto winds down, and while the X Men need time to recover, Wanda needs to talk to her brother.

Wanda knew something was wrong with Pietro that morning. She didn’t have to see him - didn’t even have to know where he was - to know he was in trouble, or freaking out about something. Ever since they were little, even when she was locked up, her powers let her know how Pietro was doing. Whenever he was happy and she was in the asylum and she felt it, that added to her anger at him and her father both. But now, something was wrong, and she knew he wouldn’t be able to solve it by himself. 

Jean had offered to take her shopping after school(“That wardrobe could use a bit of freshening up, don’t you think?”), and as much as Wanda wanted to take her up on it, she couldn’t. Her dumb twin brother was in trouble somewhere and he wasn’t going to save himself. 

“Are you sure you want to deal with him right now?” Jean asked Wanda as Scott was driving them home from school. “I’m all for moving past your differences and making up but sometimes you just need to wait and give it time.”

“I’m not planning on making up with him,” replied Wanda, glaring out the window. “I’m not going to abandon him if he needs help, though. He abandoned me when I was little and I’m not going to do the same to him.”

“Being the bigger man,” Jean commented. “Why are us girls always pushed into being the bigger man?” She laughed. “Well, it’s your choice, Wanda. I’ll pick you up some jeans or something at the mall if you want. What size are you?”

Wanda wished, again, that Pietro could just stay out of trouble on his own and leave her to go do actual teenager things, and live a real life now that she was free. “Three. Thanks, Jean.”

“Sure, don’t worry about it,” Jean said, smiling. “Pietro’d better owe you big time after this.”

“Trust me, I’ll hold him to it,” Wanda replied. 

Scott stopped the car at the entrance to the Institute. “I hope you don’t mind, I’m not pulling into the driveway right now since we need to keep going. You’re being a really good person, Wanda. Like, above and beyond.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Wanda quipped as she stepped out of the car and started up the long driveway to the Institute. Even though the comment had seemed a little patronizing, it made her smile and enforced the feeling that had been growing in her slowly over the past week or so. That she was going to fit in here. That she could belong here. 

Her smile faded, however, the second the saw through the windows of the Institute and into the lobby. She broke into a run, bursting through the door and skidding to a halt on the rug. 

Gathered in the room were the Professor, Storm, Pietro, Evan, and Kitty and Lance. The Professor had a hand to his head, and was muttering something that was clearly being conveyed psychically. Ororo was holding Evan’s shoulders, speaking to him firmly, and Evan was wincing. Pietro was tapping his foot nervously on the rug, looking down at Kitty and Lance, who were on the couch. Kitty was crying. Lance was unconscious. 

“What’s going on?” Wanda asked, loud enough to be heard over the commotion in the room. 

“Oh, dear,” murmured the Professor, and Storm shook her head. 

Wanda looked from one of them to the other. 

“I messed up,” Pietro said, his voice weak and strained. “I messed up, I didn’t- I wasn’t-”

“Hey,” Evan said shortly, pulling away from his aunt and laying a hand on Pietro’s shoulder. He was obviously angry with Pietro over something, but he was putting it aside. 

“It was my fault.” Kitty held a hand over her mouth as everyone turned to look at her. “I’m so sorry, Professor. I was sick of hearing all the- all the bad stuff Mystique did to them and I thought we could-” She stopped, shaking her head and wiping her eyes. “Magneto was there, though, of course, and how could we beat Magneto? I mean- we were so stupid.” She looked over at Lance. 

“I would tell you that you should have known better than to go off on your own without telling me, but…” The Professor sighed. “I’m sure you’ve already come to that.”

Kitty nodded, sniffing and pushing her hair out of her face. “Will Lance be-”

“Fine, yes, his injuries aren’t that bad,” the Professor assured. “I’m taking him down to the med room and looking him over just to be sure. Ororo and I will keep you updated on his recovery and I’ll let him have visitors once he’s woken up.”

Nodding again, Kitty moved out of the way as Storm lifted Lance up with a bed of wind and began to carry him out of the room, the Professor in their wake. 

Once they were gone, Evan immediately went to Kitty, rubbing her back and telling her that Lance would be fine, that everything would be fine.

“So, we need a chat.” Pietro didn’t ask it, just stated it, matter of factly. 

“Yeah,” Wanda confirmed. She led him back outside, where they sat on the sunny steps going up to the Institute’s doors. “Man, what where you thinking?”

“I know, I shouldn’t be meeting with Dad, it’s two faced and whatever.” Pietro wouldn’t look at her.

“I was sort of talking about you - how do I say this?” Wanda almost smiled, it was a good thing to talk about. “Directly going against Dad to rescue Lance? Yeah, that sums it up.”

Pietro winced. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Well, keep on being this metal, for starters,” Wanda told him, risking a smile. “Listen, I thought you were in trouble. I thought you were getting… beat up or something. I didn’t know you could worry that much about other people.”

Pietro sighed. “Did your powers tell you I was upset?”

“They told me you were freaking out,” Wanda said, looking over at him knowingly. “Do you really care about those guys? Lance and Kitty and Evan?”

“If something bad happened to them, it would be my fault,” Pietro answered, his voice breaking. “And I couldn’t stand that but that’s not it. I actually- like- I actually do care. And I don’t know why or when it started but I don’t- I want them to be safe.”

Wanda regarded him. That wasn’t something she ever imagined coming out of her brother’s mouth, and it softened her feelings towards him a good amount. Especially put in context with the fact that he didn’t really know Kitty. He’d never taken time to socialize with her once they all moved in, he didn’t have a connection with her. But he still cared. He still didn’t leave her with their father. “Evan? You hate him, remember?”

“I can’t hate him.” Pietro shook his head. “I hated him before I knew him, but now- no, I can’t. He  gave me too many chances.” 

Wanda raised her eyebrows. It hadn’t occurred to her that while she was getting to know Jean, her brother might have been spending time with people as well. 

“I don’t want to let him down,” Pietro admitted. That was something he’d struggled with his whole life. He was never good enough for the people he wanted to impress. First it was his father. Now Evan. “He believed in me for a second there and I- I need to prove that I’m worth it, you know?”

“You sound sappy,” said Wanda. “But yeah. I know.” 

Pietro was chewing on his bottom lip. “How can I do that? Like, how do I-” 

“Get off your high horse, for one,” Wanda instructed. “Two, stop caring so much about what other people think of you. They’re who you interact with or whatever, but they’re not you so they don’t matter as much. Three, I don’t think Evan Daniels expects some grand gesture from you. Just don’t be a dick to him and you’ll probably get along fine. Four, learn to apologize. That’s it.” 

“Wanda?” Pietro looked over at his sister.

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.” He put an arm around her shoulders and, to his surprise, she let him keep it there. “I mean it, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for letting Dad lock you up, I’m sorry for talking back to you, I’m sorry I didn’t do anything to help you when you came to the Brotherhood house. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to tell you I’m sorry.” He rubbed his free hand over his eyes. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better brother to you when we still had a chance to be siblings.”

Wanda pursed her lips, blinking fast to clear her eyes of tears. She had pictured this moment so many times when she was in the asylum. He’d been a little late on this one, she thought, but better late than never. 

“Wanda?” he said quietly, giving her a squeeze. 

Wanda sniffed. “We’re still siblings, dummy.”

“You know what I mean. I should have been better sooner, when I still could’ve fixed stuff.” Pietro sounded bitter. 

“We can still fix stuff, I think,” Wanda said carefully, unsure of her words. “Just- seriously? Never blow me off for years like you did when we were little ever again, okay? And stop being a dick.”

“I’ll try,” Pietro promised. He leaned his head against hers. 

That felt extremely right to Wanda, like she had been waiting for it for a long time. Just a simple connection with her brother. It was calming. They sat like that, for a few minutes, on the steps of the Institute as she figured out what she wanted to say, and how she could put it into words. “I’m going to stop ignoring you now, alright? I’m not moving out with Jean to move in with you, but I’m done pretending you don’t exist.”

“Thanks,” Pietro said, laughing quietly. “I won’t let you down, I promise.”

“Do you remember, like, anything I just told you?” Wanda nudged him with an elbow. “If you don’t let you down, you won’t be letting me down.”

Pietro was grinning. “You sound like a parent.” 

“Well, now that you finally put Dad in the can, you’re gonna need one,” Wanda murmured. 

“Maybe we should go back to not talking then,” Pietro laughed, “because I don’t think I can handle that.” 

Wanda chuckled, and elbowed him again, and it was so good to just be with her brother again that she let all the other worries on her mind slip away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos are appreciated!


	11. Part of Something - Todd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the event, Todd feels like he's left in the dark about a lot of things, and with the arrival of an old friend(ish) in town, he has things to investigate, with or without help

When Todd got back from school - yeah, he actually went that day, if only to shut Fred up - the Institute was hushed, like something had happened. He walked the halls, trying to find someone to ask about it, but of course, they were all occupied somewhere else. Somewhere he was having trouble finding, apparently. 

Finally coming into the kitchen, he spotted Wanda and Pietro. That was admittedly more than a little weird, since they hadn’t talked since… he couldn’t remember a time where they talked. He held up a hand in greeting. “Hi guys.”

Pietro nodded to him, and, as usual, Wanda ignored him completely. 

Todd sighed. “What’s goin’ on around here? Did something go down that I missed out on?”

“Uh-” Pietro laughed sort of cynically, and Todd couldn’t tell if it was directed towards him or not. “Yeah, you missed out on a lot.”

“Cool. Could you fill me in?” Todd sat down across from them at the table, folding his hands like a parent ready to hear how his kids’ days went. He’d been sort of freelancing it ever since they arrived at the Institute - just trying to get used to things on his own - but in all his active ignoring of the X Men he’d fallen out of touch with the Brotherhood as well. All he wanted was to stay him, instead of turn into someone the Professor would be proud of, but all his friends were letting X Men mentor them or whatever was going on. Pietro had Spyke, Wanda had Jean, Lance had Kitty, although he wasn’t sure if that had been going on before they arrived. Even Fred had the new kid. And while avoiding the X Men, it turned out he avoided his friends as well. 

“Um.” Pietro raked his hands down his face. “Another time, man, it’s a long story.”

“What’s your hurry? Got somewhere to be?” Todd was getting that familiar feeling, the one he got whenever he started a conversation. That the person he was talking to didn’t want to be there. 

Pietro looked at his sister quickly. “Actually, yeah. Wanda told me I was cutting into her mall time and we’re gonna head down so she gets off my back about it.” 

“Shut up, you need more of your dumb, skin tight shirts, I don’t need anything,” Wanda muttered, talking purposefully only to Pietro. 

“So, sorry, got to go.” Pietro did sort of a cocky salute before he and Wanda left the room. 

Todd sighed. Well, whatever. He could go try to find someone else. The whole institute couldn’t be out shopping, and if he had to talk to Storm or someone to get the story, then so be it. He got up, stretched, and headed out of the room and back into the lobby area. “‘Sorry not sorry, ugh,’” he mocked, trying to nail Pietro’s flippant tone. 

The doors to the lobby swung open, and Fred came through. 

That put a smile on Todd’s face. “Oh, hey! Fred, man, do you know what…” His voice trailed off as he saw the small person tucked under Fred’s large arm. Amara, the new girl. Ever since the first night she showed up, she and Fred had been inseparable, but Todd couldn’t help thinking that he’d been friends with Fred for a lot longer than she had, and so he should be a priority. 

“Do I know what what?” Fred asked. “Make it quick, because I have something to tell you, too.”

Well, that was good. Finally, someone was willing to talk to him. “So some serious sh….tuff-” He caught himself, eyes on the freshman Amara. “-some stuff went down here and now either everyone’s off somewhere or not wantin’ to talk to me, and I just wanna know what happened, you feel?”

“Um, yeah, I feel. I can’t help you, though,” answered Fred slowly. He did most things slowly. “We just got back from school.”

“What did you do, walk?” Todd laughed, shooting them a glance.

“Yes,” Amara piped up. She smiled at him. She had a nice smile. 

Todd wanted to be jealous of her - more, he felt he had a right to be jealous of her - but he couldn’t find it inside of himself to be bitter towards her when she clearly was trying to be as kind as possible to everyone at the Institute. “What made you do that? It’s like more than a mile!” 

The conversation was trivial, Todd would admit, but it felt really nice to just talk to people, no matter how important the subject was. Sometimes banter was nice, maybe. 

“It’s not that far when you actually walk it,” Amara said, her smile still big and bright on her face. “It seems far when you’re driving and then you think about walking it, but actually doing it wasn’t bad at all, right?” She looked up at Fred. 

“Totally,” Fred agreed. “If you can think of something to talk about, then the time passes pretty quickly.”

“Oh, but you’ll never guess who we saw at school today!” Amara’s soft, gentle voice was full of suspense and excitement. 

Again, she was beyond hard to hate. Todd rolled his eyes slightly, catching a disapproving glare from Fred. He sighed. “Who?”

“Tabitha Smith,” Amara said, leaning towards him like she was telling him a secret, her voice hushed. “You guys knew her, right? Didn’t she live with you? And I was talking to Kurt, and he told me that she stayed here at the Institute for a little while too before heading over to your place. Now she’s back.”

“It’s true, Todd. I saw her with my own two eyes.” Fred nodded, confirming it. 

Todd let out a breath. “Huh. Tabby’s back in town. Who’d have thought.” He remembered Tabitha more than he cared to. She wasn’t the nicest, throwing her little balls of energy around the house and snorting when they hit someone. She was in and out before Wanda showed up, so in a way, it was nice having a girl in the house. Mystique certainly liked her. And she was funny, when she wasn’t laughing at you. 

She’d been unstable, though, in a way. Not mentally unsound, but just… easy to topple. She didn’t have that much to stand on as it was, and when she showed up at the Brotherhood house the rug had already been pulled out from under her feet. Pietro had thought it was family troubles, but he always went to family troubles first because of how troubled his family was. Todd couldn’t figure her out, personally. He kept himself too far from her to even guess at what was going on.

He had sort of forgotten that she went to the Institute first. “What are we gonna do? Do you know where she’s staying?”

“No, I didn’t even talk to her,” Fred admitted. “But you know who knew her? Kurt, when she lived here. They were sort of close, I think. He might be a good place to start.” He gave a shrug. “I can’t help with the investigation right now, I have to finish a slideshow for earth science.”

“Killjoy,” Todd muttered. He wasn’t really into how involved with school Fred had become since arriving at the Institute. It was like the guy was scared of getting a B. For Todd, a B was unthinkable, a best case scenario. Like, cool, Fred knew science, or whatever. Who cares?

Fred pursed his lips, running a hand over his mohawk. “Todd, you know I can’t let my-”

“Let your grades slip, I know, man. Sheesh.” Todd let out a sigh. “I’ll do some investigatin’ and report back tonight after dinner, how’s that sound?”

Fred gave him a thumbs up. “Awesome. Sorry I can’t help.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Todd shrugged as Fred went upstairs. “Where’s that dumb blue-”

“Um, we were just talking to him,” Amara said. Todd hadn’t realized she was still there. “I could show you.” 

Todd bit his lip. “Um… sure.” He didn’t see a point in trying to push the girl away, even though he wanted to, because that was what everyone always did to him. It would be unfair to turn it back on her and give her what he wished he didn’t have to worry about. 

Amara smiled. “Great, come on.” She led him out of the Institute and down the driveway a bit, passing the fountain and the spot where the road merged from a loop into one way. Then, she cut off of the driveway and traipsed across the kempt grounds, stopping at the foot of one of the trees planted around the Institute. 

Todd looked down at the roots, and no dice. Kurt wasn’t sitting there, so he let his eyes wander up the trunk until they found the guy, his weird tail looped around a branch, hanging upside down like a monkey from one of those old animated films. 

“Hey!” Kurt said, with a big grin that showed his fangs off. There was a puff of smoke that obscured the branch for a moment, and then another that obscured the grass near the bottom of the tree, and he appeared there. 

“You couldn’t just climb down?” Todd raised an eyebrow, struggling not to be impressed. The X Men seemed to have much cooler mutations than anyone he’d met before. 

“Sorry about the smoke,” Kurt replied, ignoring the remark. “What’s up?”

Todd took a deep breath. Kurt was at the very top of his ‘would rather die than be on a desert island with’ list. “Remember Tabby? Tabitha?”

“Oh, yeah.” An unreadable look crossed Kurt’s face. Might have been anger. Might have been sadness. 

“Man, she’s back in town,” Todd said. “Fred saw her today.”

“I saw her too,” Amara piped up. “She was tall, and blonde, and-”

“I know what she looks like,” Kurt said, waving a hand as if he could brush the comments away. “I can’t believe she is back… you know, I was grounded when we went out? Yeah, I shouldn’t have gone, I was meant to stay indoors. There was this festival in town, though, so… I went out.”

Todd sighed. Leave it to Kurt to break rules only when there was a beautiful someone involved pushing him to do so. “Why’d she take off?”

“Her father-” Kurt stopped. “She wasn’t a bad person. Her father was convincing her to break the law, steal things. She left because she wanted to run away.” He shrugged. “But she’s back.” His face brightened. “When are we going to meet up with her?”

“What?” Todd exclaimed. “That chick threw bombs at me when I was brushin’ my teeth an’ shit! No way am I gonna meet up with her.” 

“Come on,” Amara said, like a kid talking to her parent, looking at him in a way that he couldn’t stand. 

“Yeah, come on,” Kurt tried to copy her, turning his sad eyes and childlike smile on Todd. 

And honestly, that was great. People were finally waiting on him to join them before doing something arguably important, people really wanted him along, and Amara was smiling at him. “Alright, fine. But only ‘cause y’all are makin’ me.” But he was smiling too and he knew it. 


	12. Time Out - Lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lance wakes up after being rescued from magneto's HQ and something isn't healing right

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uhgndj id die for kittylance

When Lance woke up, the first thing he thought was that he was underground. Not a few feet underground, like a basement, but stories underground, and even though he was in a room, he could almost feel the weight of all that earth pressing down on him. The second thing he thought was that the room was too bright. A cold, fluorescent light bounced off the white walls and right at him, making the headache he had worse. Third- he had a headache. And fourth, he wasn’t alone. One side of his body was too warm to be only touching air, and the other person on the cot with him might account for some of the weight.

He looked down at his chest, saw Kitty’s head resting on it. They were lying in a thin cot, a scratchy blanket rumpled around their feet. The room they were in looked medical, Lance thought, blinking to adjust to the harsh light. The cot had folded out of the wall, and in the middle of the room was a clean metal table. 

A pang of fear ran through him. If Magneto had taken them down somewhere underneath his HQ while they were out then he couldn’t find a way back up to the ground. What had he done to them while they were unconscious? What would he do to them when he returned? 

Lance sat up, an arm around Kitty, holding her to his chest so she didn’t fall back on the bed, and ran his eyes over the room. There wasn’t a clear way out. The only thing that could be an exit was the sort of outline of a set of double doors, but there were still no handles or an apparent way to open it. 

“What?” Kitty murmured, her voice obscured by sleep and the fabric of Lance’s shirt. 

“Are you okay?” Lance asked, trying not to sound panicked. He’d read somewhere that if you let yourself express fear you get more scared, and that was the last thing he needed to do. She had to be okay. If Magneto did anything to hurt her, then there wasn’t a thing on earth that would keep Lance in this room. 

“Um, yeah,” Kitty replied, sitting up on her own. “Are you feeling alright? Sorry I fell asleep, I wanted to keep an eye on you.”

“I’m…” Lance touched his forehead, and his nose, and yeah, there was some pain. His headache didn’t like that he sat up, and it was telling him that very clearly, but his face felt sore as well. He slowly remembered the metal pipe that Magneto had sent into him. His nose must be broken. “I’m fine. Do you know how to get out?”

Kitty looked at him like he was turning green. “Get out? Are you sure you’re all better?”

“I don’t need to be all better, we just need to get out.” Lance stood up - another thing his headache had beef with - and walked over to the door thing. 

“Lance, sit back down,” Kitty said firmly. 

“What’s going on?” Lance tried to focus on her and, although it freaked him out to even think it, his eyes wouldn’t do it. “No, where are we?”

“We’re in the med room under the Institute,” Kitty explained, although she still had a sort of questioning tone to her voice, like she assumed he should already know that. “After Magneto knocked us out and stuck us in that closet, Evan and Pietro showed up and rescued us. It was amazing.” She sighed. “They were seriously heroic. So we got back here and the Professor took you down right away. You still hadn’t woken up. Him and Ororo were, like, worried about you.”

Waves of relief were washing over Lance, and he leaned back against the table. “I thought we were- I don’t know, I thought-” Headache was getting worse. And the room was way too bright, and it was sort of spinning, too. 

“Lance? Hey, Lance?”

He could hear Kitty’s voice, but he’d lost her in all the white walls and white floors and trying to focus his eyes hurt.

“I’m calling the Professor,” he heard Kitty say. 

His knees hurt all of a sudden, and he didn’t put two and two together until he realized they felt cold as well, and then it hit him that he’d fallen. He tried to get back up but he didn’t know which way he was looking or where he was and the room just looked like white. 

“Lance? Lance, look at me.” This was the Professor’s voice. 

Had he gotten down really quickly or had more time passed than Lance thought? He tried to find the guy but he couldn’t. 

“What’s going on?” Professor. 

“I don’t know, he just- I was telling him what happened and he just-” Kitty. 

“Was he talking to you?” Professor.

“Yeah, I mean, he sounded normal, just a little bit confused. Is he gonna be okay?” Kitty.

“I’m going to look inside his mind, could you hold him still?” Professor.

Still? Was he moving? Lance tried to figure out where each part of his body was, if his feet were on the ground, and he couldn’t put the pieces together. It was like he knew the separate bits of information but when he tried to think of them as one larger thing it all fell apart. 

And then it was harder to find the pieces in the first place, and then the blinding white of the room was a hollow black. 

When Lance woke up, the first thing he thought was that he was underground. Not a few feet underground, like a basement, but stories underground, and even though he was in a room, he could almost feel the weight of all that earth pressing down on him. The second thing he thought was that the room was dim. An evening-like hush was hanging over whatever lighting there was in the place, keeping it low. Third, he had a headache, but it felt a lot colder, which he couldn’t pinpoint as good or bad. And fourth, he wasn’t alone. There were two other people in the room with him, one very tall and one very, very, short, almost as if he were sitting down.

_ Lance, can you hear me? _

No one had said that, but Lance had heard it anyways. It was like it was coming from inside him, but he wasn’t saying it either. “Hello?”

_ Good, you’re awake. What can you remember? _

It was in his head. The words were in his head. “I remember passing out. Did I pass out?” He blinked heavily, trying to clear his vision. 

Standing across the room from him were the Professor, in his chair as always, and Storm standing at his side. 

“You most certainly did,” the Professor said, speaking out loud instead of telepathically this time. “I was quite nervous that Magnus had done something to you, but as it turns out, you’re fine. Mostly fine.” He looked up at Storm. 

“Lance, you have a concussion,” Storm finished the diagnosis. Her voice was warm and comforting. “Kitty said that Magneto hit you with something hard. It broke your nose, but it also seems to have done some damage to your brain. Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal and definitely not permanent.”

“You just have to be careful,” the Professor jumped back in. “Don’t stand up too quickly, don’t walk to fast. It might be best for you to stay in bed for a few days, and don’t read while you rest, it might put strain on your eyes. We just want you to be as relaxed and safe as possible so you can get better as soon as possible.”

Lance blinked some more. A concussion. That wasn’t bad, right? That was like when you got hit playing soccer or something. It was fine. He was fine. “Okay,” he said, his mouth feeling dry. “What happened to me?”

“You’d been scared of something, and you moved too fast. Your brain couldn’t process the movement, so you got very dizzy, and blacked out,” the Professor explained. 

“Now, Lance, I know you’re an active kid,” said Storm, clasping her hands together. “But you’re going to need to take it easy. Seriously. No more secret missions.”

“Alright. Yeah, of course,” Lance agreed. He didn’t want to walk to the bathroom let alone go out on another mission. He was still a little bit dizzy. 

“If you start feeling worse, just call,” Storm instructed, and then she and the Professor left the room. 

Lance was in his bedroom, he realized, only after he was alone in it. He decided that the darkness was nice, and that his head maybe hurt less than it had in the med room. His phone was on his bedside table, but he knew that looking at the light would probably be bad for him. 

He reached over and picked it up, texting Kitty,  _ I’m okay. _

_ Oh my god I was freaking out. What happened? _

Lance smiled down at his phone. The light wasn’t that bad. He could hear the words in her voice.  _ I have a concussion. It’s gonna be fine I just need to rest. _

_ For how long? _

_ Couple days. Maybe a week.  _ Lance was guessing at that. Storm had mentioned at least two days, but it felt like he probably needed more than that. 

_ I’m sorry for making you come on that dumb mission with me.  _

Lance bit his lip. He’d almost forgotten it was her suggestion in the first place. He didn’t blame her at all for what had happened, and while he wouldn’t do it again, he wouldn’t undo it either. Rest would be nice. And he would want to lose the memory of waking up with her next to him. Despite his peril in the moment, looking back on it there was something so domestic about it that he couldn’t get out of his mind.  _ Don’t worry about it. _

_ I’m serious though like. It freaked me out to see you like that. _

_ It wasn’t your fault, _ he sent. And it wasn’t. She’d wanted to go but she was fighting his fight, and they both agreed on doing it. 

_ Hey can we make a pact? _

_ Sure, _ Lance sent, without thinking to ask what it was over.  _ About what? _

_ Let’s not get hurt again, okay? Or like, if we do let’s promise to take care of each other. _

Looking down at the text, Lance couldn’t help but feel the giddiness of a first date, or a proposal. It was just a promise to do the right thing and be kind, but it felt heavier.  _ Deal.  _

There was just a moment of nothing new on the screen before she sent a reply:  _ Deal.  _


	13. All Nighter - Pietro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pietro can't sleep. Neither can Evan.

It was late at night, and although the Professor said he wasn’t going to make anyone go to school the following morning, Pietro was worried his grade might need it. His absences skipping with the Brotherhood combined with his absences whenever his father summoned him were adding up, and now that he was with the X Men, he was thinking a bit about a future. Yet here he was, up, at one am. He wanted to get a good night’s sleep, wanted to be able to stay awake in classes tomorrow, but his mind wasn’t listening. 

He couldn’t shake how it felt to actually talk with Wanda. Like, it didn’t just erase everything she’d gone through and all the things that forced them apart, but it made those things seem inconsequential, and it made her wounds seem easier to heal. He couldn’t get it out of his mind, that he could have done it so much sooner. All he’d said was sorry. And, god, he had so many enemies, people he’d slighted or spited over stupid things, and it had dragged on and on and on. 

He considered going for a run, just to clear his mind, but he sort of never wanted to go out again, not after what happened with his dad. If staying inside meant everyone at the institute would stay safe, then he was fine with that. 

His thoughts kept straying to Evan. When he thought Wanda was keeping him up, Evan brought a whole new meaning to the phrase. And that was even more detrimental, because he was always thinking about him, but now he couldn’t think about him without feeling like he had to apologize to him too. What used to be a glad feeling quickly became taken over with guilt, and he got out of bed and paced around his room to try and dissolve it. 

If he just didn’t think, that would take care of it, right? Apparently not, because he couldn’t just shut off his brain like that, and before he knew it he was outside Evan’s bedroom door. He didn’t want to knock because Evan had to be asleep, but he did that too, running on the worry that if he didn’t apologize now, he’d never be able to stop thinking. 

He waited for a moment, the silence of the Institute hall overwhelming. He’d never been patient, and only a few seconds could have elapsed before he knocked again. He heard a thud from inside the room, and the door swung open. 

Evan looked tired, but didn’t have the telltale disorientation of having just woken up. He muttered a, “What?”

“I’m sorry,” Pietro said, speeding through the words like he used to before he learned that not everyone went at the same speed as he did. 

“What?” Evan repeated, this time less of a ‘what do you want at one in the morning’ and more of a ‘what the hell did you just say’. 

Pietro took a deep breath, forced himself to slow down. “I’m sorry.” It sounded weird on its own, and he was worried Evan wouldn’t take it seriously. 

“For what?” Evan scrubbed his eyes. 

“I’m a dick to you,” Pietro said, recalling Wanda’s wording. “I’ve been a dick to you forever, I can’t even remember why I started. And just- yeah, I think I’m done with that, okay?”

“Yeah…” Evan was squinting at him, the way his voice trailed off suggesting suspicion. “Yeah, man.” He held out his hand. 

Pietro shook it, hoping his fingers didn’t feel too cold. He couldn’t be trusted to talk at one in the morning, because he went on to say, “We should stop getting down on each other and start… I don’t know. We should shoot some hoops sometime. Not playing against each other, just, you know. Having fun.”

“That’s totally crazy.” Evan sighed, looking down at his feet. 

Pietro followed his gaze, noticing Evan’s socks had little pine trees on them. Cute. Wait, no, not cute, what the hell was he thinking? He shook it off. “Why?”

“It wouldn’t work out,” Evan said. 

“Why not?” Pietro was getting miffed. He’d stuck his neck out and done something he didn’t usually do and he was getting rebuffed. This was classic Evan, though, he didn’t know why he hadn’t expected this to happen. 

A grin slowly spread across Evan’s face. “‘Cause I’d destroy you, man!” His tone was light again, and he looked back up. “You think you can play me and not get pissed when I beat you so hard you forget how to shoot? Because if so then by all means we should-”

“Come on, you know I can wipe the court with you,” Pietro said, relieved. He let himself smile. 

“Fine, looks like we gotta find out,” Evan said. “Tomorrow after school.” 

“It’s a date.” Pietro froze, regretting the words the second he’d said them. “Um- I mean, it’s- like- well, not a date- well- um-”

Evan clapped a hand to Pietro’s shoulder. “You okay, man?”

Pietro cleared his throat. “Yeah. Yeah, fine. What are you doing up anyway? I thought all you X Men were super clean cut and whatever.” 

“It takes some of us longer to get through reading assignments, okay?” There was a little unsurety behind Evan’s voice. “And I just got a lot in history and then some in lit too. Plus, you’re an X Man now, watch what you’re saying.” 

“Shit.” Pietro ran a hand through his hair. “You’ve been up reading?”

“Yeah.” Evan was tapping his foot on the ground in an agitated way. “And it’s one am and I’m so damn tired I can’t focus on the words anyway, so I don’t know what I’m-” He stopped, shook his head. “I should just take a bad grade at this point, huh?”

“Nah.” Pietro hated the idea of Evan giving up on something. Evan was the one person who dealt with the same stuff Pietro dealt with and didn’t give up. He was the one person Pietro knew he could look up to, if only in secret. “Can you stay awake if I read it to you?”

“What?” Evan honestly looked confused. 

“Reading isn’t one of my problems,” Pietro explained, wondering if he should regret bringing it up at all or not. “Listening is, but not reading, and I can read if you can listen.”

“You’re serious?” A smile was tugging at the corners of Evan’s mouth again. “You should go to sleep.” 

Pietro shook his head. “I can’t. Sometimes my thoughts go too fast for me to sleep, but it’s okay. And yeah, dead serious.” He watched Evan’s face light up, followed Evan back into his room, and sat down opposite him on the bed. 

He hadn’t anticipated how boring the reading would be, or how much of it there was, but he still went through it, trying to sound interested. He would push Evan’s shoulder as gently as he could whenever Evan started to fall asleep, and would ask him a question now and then to make sure he was getting the information. 

He didn’t know when, but at some point, he’d fallen asleep, because he opened his eyes to sunlight pouring through Evan’s windows, which didn’t have curtains. He sat up abruptly, and the book fell from his lap and onto the floor with a bang. 

Evan stirred across the bed. “What time is it?” he mumbled. 

Pietro grabbed Evan’s hand, looked at his watch. “Almost seven. Shit, we have to go, we’re gonna be late.” 

“Scott’ll give us a ride, man, don’t worry about it.” Evan yawned, stretched, and pulled himself out of bed. “Plus, you run a hundred miles a minute, you’re never late.” 

“I was going to walk with you,” Pietro admitted, picking the book up and handing it to Evan. 

“Right, you say that now,” Evan replied, laughing. 

Pietro caught himself holding his breath so he could just listen to that laugh. 

“I’ll meet you at breakfast,” Evan continued. “Make sure Scott doesn’t leave without us.” 

“Alright.” Pietro sped through his morning routine and basked in the smile Wanda gave him when he told her he was going to school. Then he squeezed into the back of Scott’s car between Kitty and Evan and started to feel the effects of staying up all night. 

It was nice out, so Scott had the top of the convertible down, and wind was pushing them all back in their seats.

“Thanks,” Evan said, leaning too close in the already cramped backseat so he could be heard over all the wind. 

“Yeah, don’t mention it,” Pietro replied quickly.

“I’m serious, man. Thank you.” Evan’s eyes didn’t stray from Pietro’s. 

“We still on after school at the court?” 

“For sure,” Evan said, and smiled, and Pietro had to look away because his smile was that damn pretty. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> s;ldjflsjk he's so in love


	14. A Familiar Face - Todd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A meeting with Tabitha proves that she's in a worse situation now than when she took off a year ago. Against his better judgement, Todd swears to help her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof,, it's been a while since i updated this rip!! anyways enjoy !! bicon tabitha smith features in this one.   
> TW for implied drug use and abuse

Todd and Kurt had finally tracked Tabitha down to a jewelry place at the mall that none of them could afford, Amara trailing nervously behind them. They’d formulated a strike plan to a tee- first, Amara, who Tabby wouldn’t recognize, would go up and talk to her, pretending to have lost something or whatever she could improvise. Then, Kurt and Todd would go in from both sides, and she’d be trapped and have no choice but to talk to them. They’d grill her for anything they could take back to Fred. 

“Come on,” Kurt whispered to Amara, not taking his eyes off Tabby. “Go distract her.”

“Yeah, what’s the hold up?” Todd didn’t like agreeing with Kurt on anything, not even ‘hey, what are you doing, remember the plan’, but he was nervous that Amara would freeze up. 

“I’m going, I’m going,” Amara insisted, her grip tight on her backpack straps. She took a deep breath, blew it out slowly, and strode towards the jewelry shop purposefully. 

Todd watched from behind a sunglasses stand, trying to make out what the girls were saying. He could see them, but he wasn’t quite close enough to hear anything, and it was grinding on his nerves. That, and Kurt was squeezing behind the pillar of sunglasses with him and threatening to push him out into plain view. 

“Do you think she’s getting anywhere?” Kurt whispered. 

“I can’t hear,” Todd shot back. “Shut up and get outta my way and I might be able to.” 

“I want to get closer.” Kurt was eyeing other possible hiding spots, and seemed to settle on one closer to the jewelry place. 

Todd grabbed the back of Kurt’s shirt before he could move. “There’s no way you’re gonna get there without gettin’ seen. If we’re gonna go corner her now, we just have to do it.” 

Kurt began, “I can teleport-”

“Not in a crowded mall! It’s not like you’re a super spy or nothin’, you make a shit ton of smoke when you do that,” Todd told him quickly. “Look, are we gonna go over and trap her or are we gonna wait here for a little longer?”

Kurt tilted his head from side to side, weighing the options. “I think we should wait a little longer.” 

“Wait?” Todd repeated, because he wanted to double check, and make sure Kurt wasn’t going to do anything characteristically stupid. 

“Wait,” Kurt confirmed. 

“Wait for what?”

Todd froze. He’d know that voice absolutely anywhere. The voice that had personally told him to fuck off on more than one occasion, the voice that had told him to get over it when its owner had flung explosives at him, the voice that had, if rarely, commented on how funny his jokes were. 

“Are you guys seriously hiding behind a sunglasses kiosk?”

That voice again. 

And then Amara’s softer, apologetic voice, saying, “I’m really sorry, guys, I was trying to distract her but she saw right through me. Sorry.”

Todd straightened up, and nudged Kurt so he’d do the same. He cleared his throat. “Tabby. Long time no see.” 

“Yeah, no kidding.” Tabitha ran a hand through her hair. “Hey, Kurt. Looking good.” 

“Oh, hi,” Kurt said, and he wouldn’t look up at her. His eyes were trained on the mall’s linoleum floor. 

“What’s going on?” Todd asked, sort of hoping it would be just like old times at the Brotherhood house and she wouldn’t act weird about him wanting to catch up. She had been part of the family there, even if it was only for a short time. “I haven’t seen you since you skipped town last year.”

“Yeah, because I haven’t been back since then.” Tabitha’s smile faded slightly. “You weren’t up to speed on what was going on last time, were you?”

“Um-” Todd exchanged a glance with Kurt, who shook his head. “Yeah, I guess not.” 

Tabitha sighed. “I really shouldn’t be doing this, but let’s head out.” 

Todd, Kurt, and Amara followed Tabitha through the mall and into the parking lot, where she led them to her car. 

“Hop in.” Tabitha gestured to the back seat. 

She drove them up into the hills outside of town, and parked right on the edge of the cliff overlooking the city and the ocean. She looked out at the sea, and she sighed. “Look, I know you guys are going to be nosy and irritating about this so I’m thinking I might as well just tell it to you straight. Don’t go telling anyone else, though.” She turned to glare specifically at Todd. “Especially not Mystique.” 

“No, no, I’m-” Todd babbled. “I’m- we’re not living there anymore. We moved out. We’re with the X-losers in their mansion now.” 

“Hey!” Kurt exclaimed, before getting a glare from Tabitha. 

“Whatever,” Tabitha said. “So, like, Kurt knows this already, but last year I was really only in town because I was doing a job.”

“Where were you working?” asked Amara. 

Tabitha chuckled. “No, like, a job job. Like, theft. I was here to steal for my- piece of shit father.” She rubbed a hand over her face. “Yeah, and I did it last time, and I took off because I didn’t want to work for him anymore.”

“I remember you leaving,” Kurt said. “You were on your way out, it was good.” 

“Yeah,” Tabitha said. “It was good. Until it wasn’t. Adults can find you anywhere. The law is always on their side, even when they’re-” Her jaw was clenched tight, and she shook her head. “Whatever. I was listed as a missing person and when the cops found me, they brought me right back to him.” 

“No,” Kurt said, under his breath. 

Todd was a little lost, as he hadn’t had as close a connection with Tabitha last year as Kurt had, but he was getting the gist of things. So Tabby was back in a shitty situation. It was only a matter of time, he realized, before that was him, with Mystique, and he found himself relating to the story a little too much. 

“So I did a few more jobs,” Tabitha continued. “I’ve been getting better at blowing locks. Like, now I can do it without even taking the safe door off the hinges.” A smile spread over her face. “My powers are- I’m getting really good.” The smile faded quickly. “But the money all goes to him, and he doesn’t even buy food for me to eat.” 

“What does he spend it on?” asked Amara. She was chewing her nails, completely focused on Tabitha’s words. 

“Don’t worry about it, girl.” Tabitha shook her head. “But anyways, he started talking about going back to Bayville. As if he hadn’t already tried here and failed. I couldn’t talk him out of it, though, so-” She shrugged. “-here I am.” 

“Just run away,” Kurt said, after a moment of silence. “You have a car; just take off.” 

“I have a car, sure,” Tabitha replied. “But I don’t have a license, and it’ll only take so long before I get pulled over, and then, ‘hey, isn’t this the kid that Smith fella is looking for?’ ‘damn, I think it is. Bring her in.’” She sighed, and she dropped her head into her hands. 

Todd exchanged glances with first Kurt, then Amara. They both looked worried, in typical X Men fashion. He wouldn’t say it, but he was a little concerned too. Tabitha hadn’t always been the sweetest to him, but she was still part of the Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood looked out for each other. 

“I’m sorry I’m whining to you guys,” Tabitha said, her voice muffled from behind her hands. “I just don’t have a lot of people to unload this bullshit on.” She sighed, straightening up in her seat. “I should probably go. The old man will be missing me.” She shot them a half hearted smile. 

“Wait, Tabby, wait.” Todd thought hard. He just wanted to get her out of her situation, get her safe. “Is there a way that we can help? We’re with the X Men now, we have backup.”

“That’s sweet, froggy.” Tabitha shook her head. “I think I have to get through this one on my own, though.” 

“No one has to get through anything on their own,” Amara said sharply, and she looked like she might start crying. 

Tabitha thumbed the leather of her steering wheel, and it was hard to tell if she was thinking or just angry. “Listen, I appreciate it, and thanks for finding me and listening to me bitch about stuff, but you shouldn’t have to make this your problems.” 

“We want it to be our problems,” Kurt promised. “Seriously.” 

Tabitha gave him a small smile. “Classic Kurt.” She took a deep breath, and after a moment of silence, she said, “Alright. Alright, meet me tomorrow night on the football field. Midnight. I’ll try to think of something by then.” 

Kurt smiled his biggest, fang-iest smile, and gave her a huge thumbs up. “It’s a deal!”

Todd nodded. “Yeah, we’ll be there, Tabby.”

“Great.” Tabitha was really smiling now. “I need to go, like, now. Kurt, you can poof these guys home, right? You don’t need a ride?”

“No, I got it,” Kurt assured her. “Good luck.” He put a hand on both Todd and Amara’s shoulders. 

“You too,” Tabitha replied. 

Kurt nodded, and the three of them disappeared in a burst of violet black smoke. 

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @belkittykelly


End file.
